Trainer
by WarsOfShadows
Summary: Ash Ketchum is on a journey to become a Pokémon Master. With a spirited Bulbasaur by his side, he might be able to do it. But with tall hurdles in his path, and stumbling blocks, will Ash become a legend, or will he become like any other ordinary trainer in the world?
1. Season I: The New Friend

**Hey all, and welcome to Trainer: Kanto Arc. This is actually going to be a pretty big project of mine, and, yes, it is the rewrite of The Nomad. As I promised, I'm back, so yay! Kudos to me!**

 **Yeah...**

 **Anyway, after reading many Ash-rewrite pokémon fics, I decided to start anew since my previous one pretty much sucked. It wasn't that original, and I didn't like it. So I hope this one turns out to be much, much better.**

 **Without further ado, I present the first chapter of Trainer: Kanto Arc! RR!**

XxXxX

 _Chapter One: The New Friend_

In the second bedroom of the Ketchum household, a boy was hurriedly getting ready for the most important day of his life – Ash Ketchum, finally ten years old, was ready to set out on his quest to become a Pokémon Master.

"Ash!' a voice called from downstairs. "Breakfast's ready!"

Ash nodded, stuffing his sleeping bag into his newly-purchased backpack. "Yeah, Mom!"

Ash grinned as he zipped up the bag, only one thought on his mind: Today's the day.

With a spasm of energy, he bolted down out of the room, swinging his backpack onto his shoulder. He ran down the staircase, taking three at one until he landed roughly on the floor, but it didn't matter. Diminutive injuries were nothing to him right now; he felt like he could take a Machamp head on.

Foot tapping with impatient energy, he set his bag at the table, taking in pleasure at the sound of bacon sizzling on the frying pan. He walked up to the kitchen and saw the smiling form of Delia Ketchum sliding bread into the toaster.

"Morning, Mom."

"Good morning, Ash!"

She kissed his head before allowing him to open the fridge. "Are you set?"

"Mhmm." He pulled out a carton of orange juice, twisting the cap open before pouring a generous amount in three glasses. "Everything was already packed in my bag; I was just repacking it to kill some time."

Delia giggled and Ash heard a chuckle from the stairs. Grinning, he turned around to see Red walking down, smiling at Ash wider than ever.

Red was Ash's brother, eight years older to him. He'd started his journey normally enough – got a starter pokémon, defeated Gym Leaders, had a few misadventures along the way – but, along the way, his pokémon had gotten so strong that he'd managed to become the Champion with only a year of experience as a pokémon trainer, the youngest trainer to become a Champion, surpassing Lance and Giovanni and possibly even Thaddeus Blackthorn. He was considered a prodigy, and it a year after he'd given up his position as Champion to Lance and gone off to train to become even stronger. After that, he'd returned to Pallet Town a hero, a symbol, a Master.

Ash wanted to be just like him.

"Hey, Ash," Red said. He looked just as Ash had last seen him: messy black hair, bleary eyes and smile crinkles on his face. His white cotton shirt was tilted to the left, exposing his shoulder, and he readjusted it before smirking.

"You really weren't lying when you said you'd get up early, huh? I thought you were going to end up like poor Ella Rodriguez...Had to wait till fall, didn't she?" Red laughed before breathing very slowly and deeply for a moment, as if a great contentment stole over him; he grinned lazily at Delia. "Wow, Mom, that smells great!"

"I even made meatloaf, you know," Delia replied, casually flipping the bacon strips in the pan. "It's Ashy's special day, after all!"

Much happier at this piece of information, the two boys settled down at the table, making small talk as they awaited their breakfast. As Ash and Red breached the topic of Gym Leaders he'd challenge, Delia departed from the kitchen, skilfully holding three plates in her hands.

"I obviously won't hit one of the lesser gyms," Ash told him as he took two plates from his mother and set them on the table. "That would defeat the whole point of getting stronger. I'll challenge Brock first; I mean, he's not weak, but since most beginning trainers go through Pewter City he has quite a slew of weaker pokémon."

Red nodded. "You're right. I remember when I was a trainer and his dad was Gym Leader, but he nearly defeated Charagon with his Geodude, and I had to use a full team of six to beat him."

Then he smirked. "Still, Brock's not that competent a trainer; he wants to be a breeder, or so I've heard. But his parents want him to uphold the family honour, stuff like that, so you shouldn't face..."

They were still talking when the phone rang, and Ash practically leapt over the table to get the phone despite his mother's remarks. He forcefully swallowed the half eaten chunk of bacon in his mouth as he saw the lab's number on the ID.

He smudged melted butter on the keypad of the phone as he received the call. "E'o!"

The man on the other end of the phone sounded startled. "Er...Hi?"

Ash hammered his chest, forcing the bolus in his gullet to go down. "This – is – Ash – Ketchum speaking!"

"Ah! Good morning, Ash, this is Professor Oak. I'd like you to come in about half—"

"Okay!" he slammed the phone onto the cradle and jumped back to the table, stuffing several strips of bacon into his mouth before he swung the backpack onto his bag. "Gottagomombye!"

"Ash!" his mom chided, but it was too late: her son was long gone. "Red, get him back, won't you?"

Red put on his hat. "Yep."

XxXxX

After Red had caught Ash and brought him back to the house (by ordering his Skarmory Tita to pick him up), the three Ketchums walked to the lab together, talking about Ash's upcoming journey all the while.

...Well, not all the while. Delia and Red spent a good ten minutes laughing at how the youngest Ketchum was screaming like a little girl as he was held in the Skarmory's grip.

"Shut up, Red!" Ash snapped as the lab came in sight, fuming in anger and embarrassment. "So would you if a great dirty bird picked you up like she's going to feed you to your kids! I could feel her talons piercing through my skin! If it would've been one second longer I would've been shred—"

"You know full well that Tita would never hurt you," Red interjected. "She's been carrying you ever since you were six."

"She had?!" Delia said, aghast. "Is that what you'd been doing when I was working at the lab?"

Red paled. "Uh, actually, Mom—" He faltered upon seeing his mom's contorted face. "I – At least nothing happened!"

Delia glared at him. "Pray that nothing happens to you, Red Ketchum! He was six! What're you, stupid? You never apply yourself! You..."

Delia continued to rant on till they finally reached Oak's Lab, and the presence of the other waiting trainers – a tall boy named Gary, a pretty girl, Natalie, and Jack, a young curly-haired boy who had moved into Kanto two years ago – was enough to stop Delia from progressed. Instead, she focused on the four kids, all of whom had wide grins on their faces.

"Hey, Ash!" Jack greeted, raising a hand at him before he grinned at Red and Delia. "Hi, Red. Good morning, Ms Ketchum."

"Good morning, Jack," Delia replied kindly. Red simply nodded at him with a smile on his face. "And you, Natalie, Gary. Are you three ready?"

"You bet I am!" Gary exclaimed. "I can't wait to get my starter and kick ass!"

"Language," a voice snapped.

The doors of the lab slid open to reveal Professor Oak smiling upon the four beginning trainers. He was wearing the same lab coat that Ash had seen him wear every single day, and it seemed to him that the elderly man had an entire wardrobe only for lab coats. There were bags under his eyes, which was no surprise; Oak worked to no end and had a complete disregard for sleep.

"Hello, Red," Oak greeted, "and good morning to you too, Delia."

"Hello, Professor."

"Good morning, Samuel." Delia laughed. "We better let these kids enter the lab right now and take their pokémon, or else that Squirtle is going to blast the two of us into oblivion!"

Oak chuckled. "Righto." He ushered them inside the lab, then focused his attention on the four children. "Now, I assume you four are ready to receive your starter pokémon, yes?"

Gary snorted. "'Course we are, gramps!"

Oak nodded. "Good. However, there is a slight hitch in the plan." When everyone looked confused, he continued. "The breeding centre where I ordered the pokémon from got a massive shipping order from Kalos two nights previously. Now, since said breeding centre is the only league-sanctioned centre where Kanto starter pokémon were provided, almost all of them were shipped to Kalos, leaving only a handful, and luckily there were three who met the standards I had kept. One of you will have to wait till next month till fall to receive the standard starter pokémon, or else choose the other pokémon I have to offer."

An uncomfortable silence filled the room. Gary was oblivious about the whole thing and began chatting with one of the lab assistants, since he was sure that he would get his desired pokémon. Ash felt a lump growing in his throat when he realised that none of the others were going to speak up. Sighing, he opened his mouth—

Jack exclaimed, "I'll do it!"

Everyone looked at him in surprise and beamed at him. "It's okay, guys," Jack went on. "I'll take the later one."

Gary smirked. "It doesn't matter which one you take, Jack, 'cuz anyway you're never going to enter the Indigo Conference—"

"Gary," Oak hissed.

Oak cleared his throat and walked them over to the main area, where a circular table held three pokeballs engraved with symbols of fire, grass and water. "Now, as you four know, I'm conducting research on the relationships between pokémon and humans, and I'd like the four of you to do a small project for me – capture as many pokémon as you can, record them with this pokedex—" he held out his hand to a cardboard box beside the table, "—and bond with all of them. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Good. Now, have you decided which pokémon you want?" Oak asked.

Oh, man.

He'd been thinking about that for years – the voice between Squirtle, Charmander and Bulbasaur. Ever since he'd decided to become a pokémon trainer, it had been incredibly difficult for him to decide between the three pokémon. Each of them were highly priced in the market, ridiculously rare and the best of their type, whether it came to battling, performing, coordinating or the like.

Squirtle, the tiny turtle pokémon. The hardy water-types were the most defensive of the trio. They had tremendously hard shells, formed mainly to protect themselves from physical attacks and also retaliate. Squirtle evolved into Wartortle, which then evolved into Blastoise, great hulking beast with canon-like structures protruding from their shells that could release high pressured blast of water powerful enough o Punch through steel like knives carving into butter. Their skulls could also pack a punch and the species were highly prized for this.

Charmander, the flame pokémon. The fiery lizards would evolve into the massive, notoriously powerful pseudo-dragons, Charizard. Their power and temper were infamous and knew no bounds. Its evolutionary line relied on power and speed, two qualities that could be put to great use to decimate opponents. Fully grown Charizard were known to use Blast Burn, a terrifyingly powerful move like Frenzy Plant and Hydro Cannon which were used to destroy other pokémon. Blue, Gary's older brother, himself had a Charizard and Ash would never forget the day he'd seen the spirited beast in battle.

But no. Ash didn't want a Charmander. Gary had already chosen a Squirtle for himself, and Ash, knowing that the tall boy was Oak's grandson, knew that no one else other than him would be getting the water type creature.

Ash had set his sights on Bulbasaur, the seed pokémon. Bulbasaur was a hardy little grass type with great versatility. It was specialised for halting opposing pokémon with various tactics such as spores, poisons, etcetera and then knocking them out with its superior mass and powerful vines. Although Bulbasaur weren't known to tank attacks, the bulbs on their backs provided nourishment, so they could go on for a long time in battle before getting knocked out. They were prized not only for battles, but also for captures. It was a trainer's ideal choice.

Furthermore, Ash had seen his brother's Venusaur in action, and he was in awe when the beast had knocked out Bruno's Steelix with only one Power Whip. There had been absolutely no competition.

"Yeah, Gramps! I've decided!" Gary exclaimed, jumping up and down.

Oak laughed. "Okay then, you three. Pick your pokémon. Jack, if you would please wait back so that I could give you your pokémon."

Everybody present rolled their eyes at Gary's antics as he swaggered up to the circular table and snagged the pokeball emblazoned with the water droplet. They all knew that he had been crooning about having a Blastoise on his team, and all agreed with him that he only would be getting a Squirtle just to put an end to they spiky-haired boy's rants.

Gary quickly released the smaller pokémon within the pokeball's confines. What came out was a small, blue pokémon with a yellow and orange shell and a curled tail. The creature blinked and registered its surroundings; it glared at Oak momentarily before looking up at the people and grinning, folding its arms cockily.

Gary too grinned back at the turtle and dropped down to his knees. "You look like a tough guy, don't ya?"

The Squirtle snapped his jaws playfully.

"Tell you what: I'm on a journey to become the strongest pokémon trainer there is. You think you got what it takes to keep up with me?"

Squirtle's grin widened and it nodded vigorously. Gary smirked and petted the creature, who cooed under his touch. "Awesome, Squirtle! Let's go and conquer the world!"

Oak smiled. "Good. Now, Natalie, you're next."

Natalie nodded and swept her hazel hair out of her face. She smiled and walked complacently to the table and picked up the flame-engraved pokeball which contained Charmander. She too released the pokémon and petted it. The lizard yawned, showing his ivory-coloured fangs, and grinned when it saw Natalie smiling at it.

"Hi, Charmander." She waved her hand. "It's Natalie. Nice to meet you! Would you like to travel the world with me? I'll make you stronger than any other Charizard in the world!"

Charmander wagged its tail at that. Like any other of its species, it had an unending desire to become stronger. What Natalie said sounded great to the fire-type.

She laughed. "Okay, Charmander. We'll make an awesome team!"

Charmander cooed as its trainer scratched its chin, and Oak chuckled. He picked up the last pokeball and tossed it to Ash. "I guess this is for you then, eh, Ash?"

Ash tapped the release in the pokeball and let out a fairly big, green dinosaurian pokémon with four short legs and a bulb on its back. The pokémon glanced at Ash and sent out two vines, running the appendages along his open palm. Ash grinned at it. "Hey there, Bulbasaur! My name's Ash. I wanna become the greatest Pokémon Master this world has ever seen. Will you help me in my journey?"

The Bulbasaur's eyes widened and it nodded eagerly, a grin splitting across its face. "Cool!" Ash exclaimed.

As they three continued to interact with their pokémon, Ash noticed Jack looking at them rather enviously. Ash felt quite sorry for him, and it seemed that Oak noticed Jack's expression because he said, "Jack, wait here; I'll be getting your pokémon in a minute, fine?"

Jack nodded and smiled at the professor. Oak walked up the stairs to the second level of his lab before jogging down a few minutes later, a pokeball in his hand, making Jack jump in excitement.

"Here is your pokémon, Jack." The boy carefully picked up the pokeball, his hands trembling nervously. Jack stared at the ball in awe for a few moments before Red broke the tension by yelling, "Get on with it!" Everyone chuckled and Jack grinned back nervously.

The curly-haired boy pressed the release button, forcing the pokeball to eject a beam of energy that materialised in the air into a yellow, fox-like pokémon. The creature rotated in its spot above the ground before teleporting away and back in two seconds.

The name immediately registered in Ash's mind: Abra. The pokémon were known to be almost as rare as the Kanto starters as they would immediately teleport away in an instant whenever a trainer came near with the intent to capture them. Those that did catch them had to first make their way into a room with anti-teleportation barriers to prevent the captured Abra from escaping. Although difficult to train, a well-trained Abra would be invaluable in battle due to the number of Moves they could learn via TM and tutoring.

"Whoa!" Jack remarked. He raised one hand, and the Abra flinched – probably to teleport away – but instead it allowed him to stroke its back, comforting Abra.

"I was planning to give you a Pikachu I caught a few days ago; it had been chewing on my computer cables for a week, but..." Oak scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Let's just say he had quite the temper."

The Abra barely made any noise as Jack continued to pet it. It flinched again as Oak cleared his throat to gain everyone's attention.

"Now that you've gotten along with your pokémon," Oak said, "Why don't you get to know a but more about them? From this box, take out one pokedex each – I've set each one up, so you complain about it not being your colour – and scan your partners! Go on!"

They four quickly hurried to the box and searched for their pokedexes by switching them on and entering the IntTraNet app. Ash, Gary, Natalie and Jack received a chrome, blue, dark red and green pokedex respectively.

The three shuffled back to the places and pointed their pokedex's lens at their new partners to scan them. The pokedexes spoke in a voice disguised by a digital filter that Ash recognised as Daisy Oak's.

 _Squirtle, the Tiny Turtle pokémon. Squirtle's she'll is not merely used for protection. The shell's rounded shape and the grooves on its surface help minimise water resistance, enabling this pokémon to swim at high speeds._

 _This Squirtle is female and knows the moves: Water Gun, Withdraw, Aqua Jet, Mirror Coat and Aqua Ring. Its ability is Torrent, which powers up water-type moves when it is in trouble._

"Woohoo!" Gary exclaimed, punching at the air. "Ms Ketchum, Gramps, thanks a lot! Squirtle is kick-ass!"

Delia simply smiled while Oak glared at his grandson for the use of such language.

 _Charmander, the Lizard pokémon. The flame that burns on the tip of its tail is an indication of its health. If it is healthy, the flame burns brightly and intensely._

 _This Charmander is male and knows the moves: Ancient Power, Dragon Dance, Ember and Smokescreen. Its ability is Blaze, which powers up fire-type moves when it is in trouble._

Natalie smiled at Charmander. "You're really powerful, aren't you, Charmander?"

Charmander grinned and snapped his jaws at his trainer.

 _Abra, the Psi pokémon. Abra sleeps for eighteen hours a day. However, it can sense the presence of foes even while it is sleeping. In such a situation, this pokémon teleport to safety._

 _This Abra is male and knows the moves: Teleport and Barrier. Its ability is Synchronise, which allows it to transfer its status ailment on the pokémon that inflicted it._

Gary howled in laughter at the moves Abra knew while Jack, Natalie and Ash glared at him.

 _Bulbasaur, the Seed pokémon. Bulbasaur can be seen napping in bright sunlight. There is a seed which is embedded in the bulb on its back at birth. The seed grows progressively larger by sprouting and growing as it ages._

 _This Bulbasaur is male and knows the moves: Power Whip, Magical Leaf, Leaf Storm, Grassy Terrain and Tackle. Its ability is Chlorophyll, which boosts the pokémon's speed in sunshine._

"Great!" Ash remarked. "You look like a strong little guy!"

Bulbasaur snorted. His trainer's assessment wasn't accurate – he was much better!

"Good. Now that you're done assessing your partners, I have something else to give you. These—" he rummaged through the box beside the table which previously held pokeballs and pulled out four small pouches, "are your travel packs! They contain five pokeballs, a few potions, antidotes, paralyse heals, pokémon food cans, and...that's about it!"

The four each grabbed a pack from the professor and stuffed it in their backpacks. However, Professor Oak wasn't done yet.

"Make sure to check up with me every now and then for tips on gym leaders and the like. Although you will be able to keep eight pokémon with you, the two extra pokémon will be locked inside their pokeballs and unable to be used, so inform me if you want to change your roster. Understood?"

The four nodded, and the elderly man grinned. "Good luck on your journey; you are free to go. Be careful of the Spearow on Route One, but they won't attack unless there's a Fearow leading them. In that case, put up a message on SCORPsNet. Stay safe!"

Now that they were free to go, Gary forced a breath out and pointed at Ash dramatically. "Yo, Ketchum! I challenge you to a pokémon battle!"

Ash sighed. He knew this was coming, but he was excited and happy rather than annoyed due to Gary's behaviour. He looked down at Bulbasaur, who was glaring at Gary's Squirtle. "Bulbasaur? You don't mind beating Gary and his Squirtle, don't you?"

Bulbasaur grinned and walked in front of Ash, growling. Squirtle too stood in front of his own trainer and flexed her arms.

Gary smirked. "Squirtle, use Water Gun!"

"Bulbasaur, dodge!"

Squirtle arched her head back before snapping at Bulbasaur and letting loose a high-pressure blast of water at the grass type. Professor Oak wasn't kidding when he said that the starter pokémon he was providing this year were quite powerful for young examples of their species. The stream of water was concentrated and was speeding at Bulbasaur without fizzing out midway.

Bulbasaur simply leapt to the side and avoided the blast of water, which harmlessly struck the floor and made it wet. Squirtle glared at Bulbasaur while the dinosaurian pokémon simply snorted at her.

"Aqua T—" Gary exclaimed.

"Catch it with your vines!" Ash interjected.

Bulbasaur nodded and a thick, green Vine shot out from under his bulb, wrapping itself around Squirtle's ankle and catching her off guard as it hung her in the air upside-down. Squirtle, scared, flailed her arms aimlessly in the air while Gary cried out in alarm; Jack and Natalie roared in laughter.

"Squirtle!" Gary cried.

Ash grinned. "Bulbasaur, smash her into the ground!"

Squirtle groaned as she hit the ground with a thud, and she was spinning in a dizzy manner as Bulbasaur lifted her in the air again. For good measure, the little grass type slammed her to the ground a couple more times before hurling her unconscious form to Gary, who caught his partner with a shocked expression.

"Wha–?" He held Squirtle limply in his arms. "I lost?!"

Before anyone could say anything, he fished out a revive capsule from his bag and poured the powder in Squirtle's mouth before recalling her and glaring at Ash, jabbing a finger at him. "Whatever. You got lucky this time, Ashy-boy. Next time, I'll win. Smell ya later!"

With that, he bolted for the door and ran out of sight. His grandfather sighed. "That boy...I hope he thinks before challenging trainers again. He can really get arrogant sometimes."

The other three trainers were tempted to say more, but wisely didn't. They thanked the professor once again before heading out of the lab with Red and Delia behind them.

"Congrats on winning your first battle, Ash," Natalie said.

Jack grinned. "Yeah. I can't believe you managed to teach that Gay Oak a lesson!"

"Language," Delia snapped, her motherly instincts kicking in.

The three continued to chat about their pokémon until they reached the crossroads that led to Ash's, Natalie's and Jack's house. The other two trainer turned to face Ash and waved at him.

"We'll meet you at the start of Route One, Ash," Jack repeated for the umpteenth time that week. Their plan was to travel together till Cerulean City and then split up. "Message us and we'll get there as soon as possible."

Ash nodded. "Yep. See ya!" He yelled out the last part since Natalie and Jack were already silhouettes in the distance.

Ash was already pumped with energy when he reached his house. He ran up to his room to hastily pack his backpack with items he'd forgotten: his journal, his book on strategies and how to take the best care of one's pokémon, his guide to camping, etc. As he was about to exit his room, his hand was stuck on the doorknob as he took one last look at his room.

He examined his bookshelf, the video games, his half-empty wardrobe, knowing that it would be months before he would take a glimpse of any of it again.

He shut the door firmly and ran down the stairs.

"All set, Ashy?" Delia asked.

Ash flushed in embarrassment from the nickname, but didn't say anything about it. "Yeah."

Delia pulled out a small, gift-wrapped box out of nowhere and thrust it in Ash's hands. "This is a little gift from me," she said. "It's a Pokégear. You can use it to call, text, check the time, listen to the radio, access videos from the IntTraNet, or even use it as a map and get the latest news for pokémon in the vicinity. I took the liberty of putting Natalie's, Jack's and Gary's and Samuel's numbers on it, too."

Ash unwrapped the present; it looked like an advanced wristwatch, with a blue frame. Ash put it on his wrist and smiled at his mom. It would be a lot easier for him to contact all of his friends, Oak, Red and his mom instead of stopping at every major town or city to do that. He couldn't wait to try it out.

"Thanks, Mom!" he told her.

Delia smiled back. "I already put in your trainer data, so it updates automatically to your trainer account. I even put a reminder to change your underwear—"

"Mom!"

"Kidding," she said, laughing.

Then Red got up and walked up to him with a yellow case in his arm. "My turn." He held out the presence to Ash, who looked at it in awe as realisation dawned on him.

"Is that—?"

"Yup." Red was smirking. "That's my old TM case. I put a few of my TMs in there so you wouldn't have to buy most of them, but the newer ones...I don't have them. Still, they're—"

"They're awesome!" Ash exclaimed.

Red looked at his mom and said, "Told you: my present was better."

"It wasn't!" Delia exclaimed.

Ash looked at the two of them and hugged them tightly. "Thanks a lot, Red, Mom," he said. "I'll miss the both of you."

"I'll miss you too, Ash." Ash's mom kissed his head.

"Yeah, Ash. I'll miss seeing you make a fool out of yourself every other minute." Red chuckled, suddenly giving his brother a noogie.

After the two were done horsing around, Ash pulled open the door, but turned around and saw his mom gazing at him sadly. "Ready?"

There was a slight hitch in her voice; Ash's throat suddenly felt clogged. Don't cry...

"Yeah."

She pulled him into another hug and burst into tears. "I love you, Ashy."

Ash nodded. "I love you too, Mom."

"Don't forget to—"

"Yeah, okay!" he yelled, but Delia covered the doorknob with her hand.

She took out his hat from behind her and fit it snug on her son's dark hair. "Forget something?"

"Thanks." He tugged the bill a little lower and walked out of the door.

Delia sniffled. "Be careful, Ash..."

XxXxX

Bulbasaur and Ash were currently walking along Route One along with Jack and Natalie and her Charmander. Two Pokémon Rangers were patrolling the area to save traveling trainers from Fearow or renegade pokémon. All three trainers had been scouting for pokémon to catch, but nothing interesting came up other than the many Rattata and Pidgey.

Bulbasaur tackled all of them to unconsciousness.

They battled one or two trainers passing by, but rest of the morning passed with Ash bonding with his partner – taking about himself, chasing each other, talking about his mom and Red, with Bulbasaur laughing occasionally and striking the ground with his vines.

It was only when Jack let loose his Abra that Ash realised he hadn't nicknamed Bulbasaur. He cursed himself; he had made a mental note the night before to do that the first thing when he met his pokémon.

"When did you nickname Abra?" Ash asked, looking at the pokémon in question as he teleported above his trainer's head.

"Just before I left." Abra teleported once again as Jack made an attempt to catch him by slapping his hands at the creature. "Dad suggested the name, and he agreed. Einstein, c'mon!" Jack complained as the Abra once again teleported away, snickering. "Let me catch you at least once!"

Einstein shrugged and forgot about teleporting, allowing his trainer to catch him and let out a triumphant "Aha!"

Ash turned to face Bulbasaur. "What about it, bud? D'you want a nickname?"

Bulbasaur trilled and nodded in delight; Ash took that as a yes. Ash ran through all the nicknames he'd come up with in the last month to give his Bulbasaur.

"Green?" Ash asked. Bulbasaur shook his head. "Dino?" No. "Bulby – no, I'm just joking, just joking!" he added hastily, as Bulbasaur extended two vines from below his bulb and growled menacingly at Ash.

Ash ended up running through a dozen of nicknames before he finally stumbled upon one that Bulbasaur liked.

"Saur?"

Bulbasaur grinned, pleased. "Okay. Saur it is!" Ash exclaimed.

Saur retracted his vines and nuzzled against his trainer. Ash petted him a few times, then let go of him as he saw Natalie and Jack walking towards them with their starter pokémon at their sides.

"Caught any new pokémon?" Ash asked when they came closer.

Natalie grinned fiercely. "Charmander helped me in catching a Pidgey! He was sooo strong – he knocked that Pidgey down with one Ember!" she recounted. Charmander growled in agreement with his trainer's comment about his strength.

Ash grinned. "Nice. What about Jack? You said that you would help him catch a pokémon since his Abra – Einstein – doesn't have any attacking moves."

Jack's shoulders slumped. Natalie watched him with an expression of pity. "I couldn't," Natalie said. "We chased a Mareep for half an hour, but we lost it. Damn thing was too fast for us."

Jack vented his feelings by aiming a kick at the grass. Ash was about to say some comforting words when a soft shriek split the air.

Ash looked up and saw a Natu perched on the tree, and he grinned to himself. Natu were rarer in Kanto than in Johto, and Ash wanted another pokémon than the common Pidgey or Spearow. Natu seemed like the perfect choice – they would evolve into the powerful Xatu, which were powerful psychic pokémon if well trained.

"Okay, Saur." Ash continued to stare at the Natu, which pecked at its feet and hopped onto the next branch. "We're going to catch that Natu there."

Saur growled in agreement, while Jack and Natalie were watching in interest. He gave the evil eye to the wild Natu, who seemed unaware of their presence.

"Power Whip!" Ash commanded. He knew that Saur was still young and could use Power Whip perfectly, but he could muster up a crude version of it; the attack was simply a scarier version of Vi e Whip. He grinned as he saw Saur's vine glow a weak purple as he focused his energy into it, and he lashed at the Natu to smack it out of—

The Natu jumped up and narrowly avoided the vine, which bounced against the bark of the tree. Ash mentally slapped himself – he'd momentarily forgotten that Natu could sense attacks like any other o psychic type, however small the birds' psychic potentials were.

The Natu shrieked and puffed up and glared at its assailant. Its eyes glowed a ghostly purple as energy formed in its open beak before it shimmered and disappeared into nothingness.

Saur screamed in agony as the Natu materialised in front of him and blasted him with a beam of ghostly energy from his beak. Ash watched in surprised, but he was also impressed – the wild Natu had teleported to come closer to Saur and attacked him with an up-close Night Shade.

"Saur, Magical Leaf!" Ash said. Saur nodded and let loose a flurry of glowing leaves at the bird that sped at it with blindingly and slashed it fiercely. It shrieked in pain and was thrown back, rolling on the ground b e fore it pulled itself up.

The Natu trembled with vindictive fury as its eyes glowed again, but this time Saur was too fast for it and snagged it with his glowing vine, knocking it away. The bird tumbled on the ground before staying still – it was unconscious.

Ash threw an empty pokeball at it, and Natu was sucked inside the ball, which clicked almost immediately. Ash jabbed at the air. "Great work, Saur!" He extended a hand for a high-five and the grass type returned the gesture by clapping his trainer's hand with a vine. Ash walked up to the pokeball and happily clipped it to his belt.

Jack grumpy dropped to the ground. "Great. Now I'm the only person without two pokémon on my team."

Jack's mood was so sour for the rest of the day Ash reluctantly gave him a TM to teach Einstein so that the Abra would know at least one attacking move. Surprisingly, all of Red's old TMs were reusable, so Ash didn't mind giving his friend a TM.

After half an hour of searching, Jack finally decided on Energy Ball. It would help him in his battle with Brock, since a fair amount of rock-type pokémon were also ground-types, which made them have a quadruple weakness against grass- and water-types. However, Jack found Einstein to be taking one of his incredibly long naps that lasted eighteen hours at that time, so Jack couldn't set off in his search for a wild pokémon. However, with a surly expression, he agreed to catching a pokémon the next day and settled with inserting Einstein's pokeball in Ash's TM case and teaching the move to the Abra.

"I'm tired," Natalie yawned once they finished setting up camp and dinner. "Let's go to sleep. We can cover a lot of ground tomorrow and we might even get to Viridian City!"

Jack nodded. "Yep. Einstein might even wake up early in the morning! Then I can train him and catch another pokémon!" He grinned.

Ash nodded. All they'd done today was battle a gazillion wild pokémon rather than train their pokémon. Ash wanted Saur to get a hang of his egg moves, or at least watered-down versions of them. He would be able to knock out stronger opponents easily.

Within minutes the three set their sleeping bags on the ground and put out the fire as to not attract wild pokémon while they were sleeping. Ash did not want a rogue Fearow chasing them in the middle of the night, however exciting it would be.

He released Saur, but kept the newly-captured Natu in its pokeball. He would heal its wounds the first thing in the morning and get to know it as quickly as possible. At least by then the tiny bird would accept the fact that it had a trainer now.

Saur instantly curled up on the ground and went off to sleep, snoring as softly as possible. Ash smirked. The seed pokémon was really tired today. He covered his friend with a warm blanket and pulled him closer as he entered into his sleeping bag, hugging the pokémon.

"G'night, guys," he called out to Natalie and Jack, who replied with a vague and muffled "Good night" in return. Ash yawned, his eyelids heavy. He could already feel himself sinking into the shadows...

XxXxX

"GAAH!"

Ash flinched as the high-pitched sound pierced his mind. He blinked rapidly, overcoming his drowsiness as he got out of his sleeping bag to take a closer look at the source of the commotion. Saur was already awake, snarling and growling, his vines extended at the culprit. Ash could see Natalie cloaking herself with her sleeping bag, as if it would protect her, and Jack squealing like a little girl as he leapt back in alarm from a great furry...thing.

Ash jumped as he saw a wild Mankey plunge its hand into Jack's backpack and take out a handful of Twinkies from it. Natalie shrieked again as the Mankey stuffed itself with the Twinkies, leaving only the torn wrappers strewn of the ground.

Jack, however, was not scared. He let out a guttural roar – the cry of a man who has been deprived of his rightful Twinkie. He hurled a pokeball and sent out Einstein.

There was a flash of bright light and the Abra materialised on the ground, his head bobbing a few times. Jack groaned – his Abra was asleep, but not for too long. The Mankey did not look impressed by the psi pokémon's sight, and swung at him with a glowing fist.

The Karate Chop struck Einstein on his scalp, and the Abra made a weird sound – a buzzing groan – as he was knocked away. However, that one attack was enough to wake up the creature, and Ash noted that Abra were really cranky when they were forced to wake up from naps.

Jack grinned. "Energy Ball!"

The Mankey whimpered as Einstein let loose a barrage of Energy Balls in succession at his opponent, the green orbs exploding one they came in contact with the fighting-type. Ash winced as he saw Einstein launch two more Energy Balls that struck Mankey in the face and knocked him over.

Still smirking, Jack unclipped an empty pokeball from his belt and tossed it at the Mankey. The red-and-white sphere bounced against they Mankey's nose and sucked it in the form of red energy. One shake, two shakes, three, click. Jack smiled and walked over, picking up the pokeball and looking at it as if it was the biggest gemstone in the planet. A few seconds later he shrunk the ball and clipped it to his belt.

"Finally." Jack grinned, raised the pokeball high above his head and stuck the other hand out in a 'V' for a victory sign. Triumphant, he called out:

"I caught a pokémon!"

Ash and Natalie burst out laughing; even Jack was laughing along with them. Once they settled down, Ash Jack and Natalie decided it was a good moment to meet their new pokémon.

"Sounds good to me," Jack said, "but I need to get a Potion for Mankey, anyway. Einstein gave him quite a beating."

Ash nodded. "I need to give Natu a revive, too. I remember how Saur just knocked it out so easily."

Ash fished out a revive capsule from his medicine pouch and then took out Natu's pokeball. He tapped the release button and a moment later the tiny creature appeared at his side. He popped the revive capsule into its mouth, and Natu immediately blinked and squawked as the medicine's effect took over. Its expression hardened, however, once it saw Ash.

Natu winced as Ash petted it. "Ouch. Sorry for roughing you up so badly, Natu," Ash sympathised. "How about I spray a Potion on you? It'll heal all of your other wounds in a sec."

Natu nodded listlessly. Saur had done a number on Natu and didn't care about the type advantage he faced against the bird. He was really aggressive.

The bird winced as Ash sprayed the Potion on its wound, and they began fading and clearing out fairly quickly. Once they did, it shook its body and continued to stare into the distance, just as it had done before Saur had attacked it.

"Feeling better?" Natu nodded. "Good. Now, Natu, I want to travel the world on a journey to become the strongest trainer. Will you help me on my journey? I'll make you the strongest Xatu ever! How about it? You wanna travel with me and Saur?"

Natu's expression cleared and he nodded in understanding. It then leered at Saur and shrieked at him in anger, making the grass-type snort in amusement.

Ash smirked at the display. "Sure, Natu. You'll get your chance to battle Saur on even terms sometime soon." He flipped open his pokedex and aimed it at Natu, saying, "Hey, Natu, I'll just be scanning you with my pokedex. Alright?"

Natu nodded and continued to glare at Saur, who glared back at the bird.

 _Natu, the Tiny Bird pokémon. Natu cannot fly as its wings aren't fully grown yet. Due to this, Natu has a highly developed jumping ability. This pokémon flaps and leaps onto branches that are higher than adult humans to pick at the tree's new shoots. This pokémon will sometimes stare intently at something to increase its psychic capability and will turn aggressive when interrupted._

Ash looked at Natu in understanding. Maybe this was the reason why Natu had attacked Saur so fiercely. He made a mental note never to call the bird during its meditation. Turning back to the pokedex, he read on.

 _This Natu is female and knows the moves: Drill Peck, Leer, Night Shade and Teleport. Its ability is Early Bird, which causes the pokémon to awaken quickly from sleep._

The boy smiled to himself. Natu had a pretty good moveset, and she even knew Drill Peck – maybe she had a Fearow as a parent? Ash had heard of some pretty weird pokémon romances. It – no, she would prove a good teammate on his team, as well as a great friend in Ash's family.

Ash snapped his fingers to gain full attention once his two friends' glaring match was over. "Say, do you want a nickname?"

Natu's eyes lit up at that. She nodded her head and disagreed with every name he'd come up with for the past ten minutes. Finally, Ash came up with a rather good on, but it was up to Natu whether she would like it or not.

"Delphi?"

Natu chirped happily and nodded in agreement. The name suited her perfectly: as a Xatu, she would be completely mystical and powerful, just like the Oracle of Delphi in the ancient times – or, at least Hoennese people believed it. Ash grinned. "Okay. Nice to meet you, Delphi!"

The newly-named Delphi hopped to Ash and rested on his knee. He pulled out Delphi's pokeball. "We're going to travel now. Do you want stay in the pokeball or outside?"

Delphi replied by jumping up to Ash's shoulder and nipped at his ear, and Ash laughed. "Okay, Delphi."

Ash then looked at Natalie and Jack; the former had already acquainted herself with her Pidgey, who seemed much more mellow that the rest of her species. Jack, who had been watching Ash interact with his Natu, finally decided to send out his Mankey.

"Guys, keep your pokémon at the ready," Jack warned. "I've read that Mankey can get very aggressive."

Saur growled and extended two vines while Delphi chirped and jumped down from Ash's shoulder. Natalie ordered her Charmander to stand by if things went out of hand, and the fire-type responded by brandishing his claws and baring his fangs.

Jack quickly tapped the release button and there was a flash of white light. Mankey scratched his head and gave everyone the classic Mankey glare before looking at his surroundings, as if for an escape route.

"Don't try to run for it," Natalie said, correctly interpreting its behaviour. "Jack caught you fair and square; you're his pokémon now."

"Yeah," Jack agreed. It calmed itself down a bit, but it didn't look any more trusting. "Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. You can either accept me as your trainer or not, and if you don't I'll have to train Einstein on you. My Abra," he added upon Mankey's confused expression.

Mankey paled at that, but he still looked fierce. Then, after what felt like eternity, it nodded curtly and Jack smiled as it grunted.

"Can I pet you?" Another grunt. Jack bent forward and ran his hand along Mankey's furry scalp. The creature closed its eyes and cooed under his touch.

Jack asked another question. "You don't mind being my pokémon, do you? You have a choice. I'll not force you," he said.

Ash felt happy that his friend was giving his pokémon a choice. Even if it was an animal, it still had feelings and thoughts, just like any human. Ash wasn't going to force his decisions on any of his pokémon to battle for him. Every one of his captured pokémon deserved the choice.

To Jack's immense relief, the Mankey nodded and even looked a bit happy. Ash was surprised that Jack's face didn't tear from the way he was grinning.

"Great!" Jack said.

Mankey grunted again, and Jack scrunched his eyebrows. "What's up?" Mankey grunted a few more times, and finally pointed at the craggy ground, which was still strewn with Twinkie wrappers.

Comprehension dawned on Jack's face. "Oh, you want more Twinkies?"

Mankey grinned and nodded.

"Uh...okay, I guess. I'll get you some when we hit the store in Viridian City," he said, frowning. Ash knew why – Jack practically lived for Twinkies and didn't like to part with them at all.

Natalie and Ash laughed. "You've got to stock up a lot on Twinkies, Jack," Natalie said, giggling. "And they're not for you!"

Jack glared at her while the other two trainers continued laughing in mirth.

XxXxX

It was after lunch when they ran into another trainer.

They battled a fair amount of wild pokémon as they trudged along the dirt path. Saur and Delphi had got a good amount of action, and so had Natalie's Charmander, Zephyr, her Pidgey, Einstein and Buford, Jack's Mankey. Buford had proved to be an efficient battler, knocking wild pokémon with just one Karate Chop. Zephyr showed-off her flying skills to Delphi, who sadly couldn't fly, and had kept a smug expression until the Natu knocked him out of the sky with a well-placed Night Shade.

It was fun to watch.

The trainer they met was fishing at the Pallet Lake. She wore red sneakers, a yellow tank-top, blue denim shorts and had her orange-red hair tied in a strange ponytail. A cascading waterfall was filling the lake with water, and she was tapping her foot impatiently as she handled her fishing rod skilfully.

The trainer in question perked up as something in the lake tugged her fishing line. She smirked and quickly reeled in the catch, and she shouted "Yes!" as a Horsea broke through the surface and landed on the ground.

The trio of trainers continued to stare in interest as the trainer released a Poliwag that hopped and released a stream of bubbles at its opponent. The Horsea cried out in pain as the bubbles burst and inflicted hurt on it, and the trainer continued by commanding her Poliwag to use Body Slam. The tadpole dropped onto the Horsea with all its weight, knocking it away.

Ash, Jack and Natalie kept watching as the Horsea struggled to get up. The trainer snorkel at it. "Hypnosis!" she cried, and Ash saw the spiral pattern on its belly beginning to swirl until Horsea was caught in a trance and shortly fell to sleep. The girl threw a dive-ball at it and the water-type was caught in a matter of seconds, then treating Poliwag with a cookie moulded out of pokémon food.

"I challenge you!" Ash declared, walking faster towards the trainer.

The girl blinked. "Huh?"

"I said," Ash said slowly, as if explaining to a baby, "I challenge you to a battle. Didn't you hear me?"

The girl smirked. "Sure. How many pokémon?"

"One," Ash replied. The girl nodded and walked a few metres away with her Poliwag. The tadpole pokémon walked in front of its trainer and swished its tail.

"Saur, get ready!" Ash exclaimed. The Bulbasaur growled and stomped at the ground. Poliwag stepped back in alarm.

The girl looked worried, but frowned at Ash. "Aren't you going to use your Natu?"

Ash shook his head. Delphi chirped and nipped at his ear as she rested on his shoulder. "Nah. Delphi's tired, but Saur's itching for a battle."

The girl grinned. "Okay." She looked down at her Poliwag. "Poliwag, use Hypnosis!"

Ash blanched. He realized the girl's strategy: Saur would be asleep because of Hypnosis, and Poliwag would take its time to knock him out. Ash did not want Saur out cold. "Knock it with Power Whip!" he said quickly.

A vine, surrounded by a faint, purple glow, shot at Poliwag and knocked it away just as the pattern on the amphibian's belly began to swirl. Saur appeared a bit drowsy, but he blinked repeatedly and looked fully awake.

Ash grinned. "Great!" he praised. "Tackle!"

The girl had no time to command her pokémon; Poliwag got up only for Saur to charge into him. Poliwag squealed in pain upon being hit, but nevertheless managed to get back up again.

"Ice Ball," the girl ordered. "Then Double Slap!"

"End this with Magical Leaf!" Ash hollered.

Poliwag nodded and formed an alarmingly large sphere of cold in front of its mouth. Then, with a high cry, it launched the attack at Saur, striking the Bulbasaur on his head. The ball of ice exploded and formed a thin sheen of ice on Saur's forehead.

Ash could see Saur shivering and wincing from the super-effective attack. Another hit, and he would probably be out.

Poliwag took this chance to follow up with its next attack. It charged at Saur, tail glowing white, and jumped, soaring over to Saur. It front-flipped and slammed its tail on Saur's cheek. The dinosaurian pokémon cried out it pain and Ash frowned, trying to think of a way to get out of the situation.

Finally Saur got a hold of himself and launched a volley of glowing leaves at Poliwag. Ash grinned as he saw Poliwag knocked to the ground, unconscious.

"Good job, Saur!" Ash congratulated. The girl recalled her Poliwag with a frown, but walked to Ash with a smile on her face as she held out the prize money.

"Good job out there." She jerked her head towards Saur, who leered at her. "I knew you were going to win with that Bulbasaur, having a type advantage, but not so easily. I've had Poliwag on me for a week and a half now."

Saur puffed up in pride and grinned at the girl.

"Thanks," Ash said. "Anyway, I never caught you name. My name's Ash. What's yours?"

"I'm Misty," she said, smiling. "I've been training for a year now, but my stronger pokémon are back...home." her face twisted into a scowl as she said that word, but it reformed into a smile almost instantly. "How long have you been training for?"

"Two days."

Her eyes widened at that. "Two days? I thought a month, seeing how strong you were. In any case, pay more attention to your Natu; Bulbasaur are very easy to raise, but Natu are really hard to train. They evolve at a medium pace, but since they can't fly...you've got your work cut for you. I don't think it'll be easy for you."

Ash frowned at her. "Says the girl who lost to a newbie trainer."

Misty flushed furiously at that. "I didn't have Poliwag for long!"

"Anyway, are you participating in the Indigo Conference?" Ash asked.

Misty nodded. "As a matter of fact, I am," she agreed. "This is my first chance participating. I just trained before."

Ash nodded. "Good luck. Maybe I'll battle you and defeat you again," he added, smirking.

Misty snorted at him. "Yeah, right. Bye!"

Ash smiled at her as she walked over to a tree, where a bicycle was kept standing. She sat on the seat and rode over towards Viridian City.

"Nice!" Jack said once Ash walked back to his friends. "I thought that that trainer must've been pretty experienced, but who would've thunked that Saur would be so cool?"

Natalie sighed in exasperation. "It's 'thought', not 'thunked', Jack."

"I know!" Jack glared at her. "It just sounds cooler, alright?"

They spent the rest of the day arguing and calling each other all sorts of unflattering names until Ash finally snapped and told them to shut up. Natalie and Jack mellowed down a lot, and called a truce as the three made their way to Viridian City.

Ash, meanwhile, was planning to begin training Saur and Delphi properly once they reached the Pokémon Centre at Viridian. He would ask the nurse for a training field at the back, since he knew nothing about how to train Delphi, and that Misty girl's words kept replaying in his mind. He already knew how to train Saur; Red had mentored him the past two years and taught him everything about pokémon and the Bulbasaur line once Ash had made his decision on choosing his starter pokémon.

"Let's get there as quickly as possible," Natalie told them. "I want to sleep in a nice bed for a change. This camping stuff sucks."

Jack nodded. "Yeah. My butt still hurts from when I sat on stone...It just dug into my—"

Natalie scrunched her face in disgust. "Eww. I did not want to know that."

"Ditto," Ash agreed, disgusted by this piece of information.

XxXxX

The rest of the journey to Viridian City was quiet. They hardly encountered any more wild pokémon, a good thing, since the trio's pokémon were tired from battling frequently. Ash, Jack and Natalie needed up chatting all the way about their different strategies to use at the Pewter City Gym, and Ash quickly realised that the three of them were not up to the task.

Ash's team was limited only to his Bulbasaur. He did not want to sent Delphi out against Brock, since she would be crushed easily by the rock-type trainer's Onix or Geodude (he typically used those two rock pokémon). Saur was the only option, and he was a rather good one, although Ash had to work on his endurance if he wanted to beat both of Brock's pokémon. Ash would also have to work on helping the creature use Grassy Terrain and Leaf Storm, which were both moves bred into him. From what he'd read, he wouldn't be able to see the true power of the egg moves until Saur reached his final stage.

Natalie was facing a much bigger problem, though. The only pokémon on her team were a Charmander and a Pidgey, and both faced weaknesses towards rock-type pokémon. Natalie was planning to teach Charmander Metal Claw, a steel type move which required the user to strengthen and harden its claws with so much energy that they turned metallic. However, even if Charmander managed to perfect Metal Claw, he would probably be tired from his battle against Brock's first pokémon and would be nothing but a tiny hindrance in front of his second.

Zephyr was out of the question. A single smack from Brock's Onix's tail would knock him out.

Jack would have the easiest time with Brock, so he wasn't worried. Einstein was a bit rough with Energy Ball, since he'd learnt it from a TM at such a young age, but a day of training would make it all okay. Geodude, Rhyhorn and Onix had a quadruple weakness to grass type attacks, and even if Einstein was out cold, Mankey, being a fighting type, could easily take out Brock's final pokémon. Easiest gym battle ever.

The three was shaken out of their thoughts as they saw Viridian City only several meters ahead of them. With a jolt of energy, they raced towards the Pokémon Centre and we're relieved when the finally saw the red-and-white building.

"Hello!" Nurse Joy greeted them. She had a bright smile on her face as she registered the three trainers once the girl ahead of them received her pokémon and walked away. "How may I help you?"

"Um, we'd like to heal our pokémon, ma'am," Ash said politely.

"And we'd also like to register ourselves for the Indigo League this year," Natalie added.

"Certainly. Can I have any ID you three possess?" Nurse Joy asked.

The trio handed over their pokedexes and Nurse Joy placed them in computer slots before returning the three devices a minute later, smiling. "You have been registered. Kindly hand over you pokémon and I'll have them checked shortly."

"Thank you," Jack said. A few seconds later a Blissey appeared at the desk and took the pokeballs to the back to heal their injuries.

"You're most welcome." The Nurse smiled, then gave them an inquisitive look. "Are you three planning to stay the night?"

They nodded at her question. Nurse Joy typed away on her computer and gave them their room keys to use at the Pokémon Centre. Ash, Natalie and Jack walked to the Centre's cafeteria, talking about their goals and idols and basically everything about themselves. Ash, Jack and Natalie remembered their childhood days in Pallet Town until they got into a heated argument about who the best trainer in the Kanto was.

"It's gotta be Lance," Jack said, munching on a Twinkie.

"No way!" Ash exclaimed. "Giovanni is—"

Natalie gasped. "How can you say that Giovanni is stronger than Lance?" she said, aghast. "Lance is the champion; Giovanni is just some random gym leader!"

Ash glared at her. "C'mon! Giovanni became Gym Leader when he was fourteen – much younger than Lance! Lance became Champion only at the age of nineteen, and Giovanni was close to being the Champion one, too; he just lost to what's-her-name of the Elite Four when he was young."

"I know the best thing in Kanto: Twinkies." Jack popped another one in his mouth.

Natalie wrinkled her nose in distaste. "You're going to kill yourself by eating so many."

Jack snorted. "You kidding? So many preservatives in this thing, I'm going to live forever." He ripped another wrapper and started munching on the Twinkie it contained. "Iz teemly deeshus!"

Natalie looked simply revolted. "What?"

Jack forced a swallow. "I said, the food was—"

Overhead, the speakers blared in Nurse Joy's voice: "Ash, Natalie, Jack – your pokémon are fully healed!"

The three grinned and raced to the front desk.

XxXxX

"Thanks a lot, Nurse Joy," Ash said, scratching his Bulbasaur under the chin. "Saur and Delphi were really tired."

Saur crooned under Ash's touch; Delphi chirped happily and leapt onto his shoulder, and Ash buckled slightly under her weight.

"It's all okay," Nurse Joy smiled. "What are you three planning right now? It's past noon; have you and your pokémon had lunch yet?"

Ash, Natalie and Jack nodded vehemently. Then Ash spoke up.

"I was hoping whether any training areas were open. I mean, if they weren't taken up by other trainers."

Nurse Joy looked thoughtful. "Well, I could book one under your name right now, but it would be better if you went training your pokémon at Viridian's Battle Club."

Jack frowned.

"Battle Club?"

"You don't know?" Nurse Joy bent over and pulled out a bunch of leaflets, then handed them over to the three trainers. "Battle Clubs are special facilities meant to help trainers in training their pokémon with the use of advanced equipment. A few Battle Clubs hold tournaments every month, like the one in this city, and the winner receives several prizes: vitamins, rare candy bars, TMs, and sometimes even evolutionary stones, to name a few."

"Woah," Ash muttered in awe.

"They sound pretty good," Natalie said, "but I've never heard of 'em before now."

Nurse Joy nodded. "They were introduced to Kanto quite recently – one year ago, in fact. They're quite omnipresent in Unova, but they've branched out to Kanto, Sinnoh and Johto."

Ash grinned. "So what do we have to do? Fill a form, or something?" he asked.

"No," Nurse Joy replied, "but you will have to pay a fee to use their assets – training rooms, macho braces, the like."

"Thank you," he replied politely.

Jack held up his index finger. "One more question: can we challenge Mr Giovanni today?"

Nurse Joy's face darkened. "Unfortunately, Mr Verres isn't present at the Viridian Gym at the moment. He's busy with some league work, and he'll be back in probably a month. Furthermore," she suddenly added sharply, "I suggest you three challenge him once you and your pokémon have gotten stronger both physically and mentally. Giovanni isn't an easy person to defeat; he lives up to his tales."

The trio nodded silently, grabbed their pokeballs and left the front desk, sitting down at the same table in the Pokémon Centre's cafeteria.

Natalie tapped her fingers against the table. "I think I'll take a day off today," Natalie said. "I think Charmander and Zephyr are pretty tired, and I don't want to overtire them with training constantly. Besides, I need to call my mom and dad, or else they'll kill me."

Ash froze. He'd totally forgotten about calling his mother, and it was only by Arceus' grace that he had been reminder, although unintentionally, by Natalie. If he forgot about calling, his mother would kill him.

"Yeah," Ash gulped. "I need to call home, too."

Jack smirked. "Scared of your mom, Ashy?"

"Scared of her temper..." Ash corrected. "Who isn't?" Jack and Natalie just shrugged.

Ash walked towards one of the video telephones on the right side of the Pokémon Centre. He dialled the Ketchum household number and the video telephone rang a few times before the surprised form of Delia Ketchum appeared on the screen.

"Oh!" his mother gasped. Then she smiled. "Hello, Ash! You called!"

Ash smiled back. "Hi, Mom."

"So, how has your journey been so far?" she asked. Ash got excited again.

"Great!" he exclaimed. "Saur – I mean Bulbasaur, I nicknamed him on the go – got really strong and he defeated so many pokémon! It was only because of him that I caught another pokémon: a Natu named Delphi," he finished, releasing Delphi out of her confines.

The Natu blinked as she came out and chirped at Ash. She turned and, once she noticed Delia, focused on her.

Delia smiled at her son. "That's amazing! I'm really happy for you. How are Jack and Natalie?"

"They're fine. Jack caught a Mankey while Natalie caught a Pidgey."

"That's good," Delia said. There was a short silence, then Delia broke it. "Anyway, honey, I've got to go...I need to finish cooking lunch, and that lab report, too. Will you call me back tomorrow?"

"Yep." Ash nodded. "Bye, Mom."

"Bye, Ashy. And don't forget to change your un—"

"Mom!" Ash yelled furiously. He quickly ended the call and took several heavy breaths before typing in Professor Oak's number.

"Ah, hello there, Ash!" The professor greeted, a smile forming on his face. "I assume you just reached Viridian?"

"Hello, Professor," Ash replied. "Yeah, we reached about an hour ago."

"Anyway, how was the walk along Route One?" Oak asked. "I hope you weren't attacked by any of those tenacious Spearow, Gary had a whole flock behind him because he caught the lead Spearow—" Ash screamed internally in happiness at this piece of information, "he called me a day ago and told me about it. How are Natalie and Jack?"

Ash shrugged. "They're fine. Professor, I have something to ask you," he said.

"You have my undivided attention," Oak said, smiling.

Ash smiled brightly. "I caught a Natu yesterday—"

"—yes, I saw, well done—"

"—but I don't exactly know how to train her. Could you help me?"

Oak scratched his chin. "Hmm...Natu, eh? They grow at a medium pace, but the only problem is their aerial capabilities...not having well-developed wings, they can't fly, so I suggest you train her usage of special category attacks. She knows Night Shade, yes?" Ash nodded, and so did Oak. "Make her hit targets repeatedly to perfect her aim and prowess. As for anything else..." He tapped away on his keyboard for a few seconds before a smile of awe flashed across his face. "Drill Peck? My, my...For that, help her get into the appropriate spinning motion required for bringing out all the power of Drill Peck; it's quite a powerful move. Is that it?"

"Yes." Ash grinned. "Thanks a million, Professor."

"Don't mention it, my boy," he said. "If you need any more help, go to your Natu's entry; there will be several notes on areas where you can improve. Anyway—" he checked his wristwatch — "I need to leave. Goodbye, Ash!"

Ash said the same and turned off the video telephone. He looked down at the pokeballs on his belt, then took a deep breath and grinned.

It was time to train.

XxXxX

 **A few things to say here:**

 **Yeah, Ash got Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur is actually my favourite starter - the only starter I've chosen that's not a water type. This was my first choice in Leaf Green, 'cause the cover art of Venusaur was so damn awesome. (Sorry, Charmander. You were a close second.)**

 **Next, Ash caught a Natu! Yay! Cookies for everyone (lol, jk)! I didn't want ash to catch the generic Pidgey and Natu seemed. Like a pretty good choice. Also, I used to hate Xatu, but a few years later when I played Heart Gold I LOVED it on my team.The rivals: Natalie and Jack are two OCs I made up (duh). Natalie is more competent, like on Gary's level, while Jack is someone for comic relief. He's never been even half of Gary's or Ash's or Natalie's level. Also, Gary isn't much of a dick here (I hope) but he despises Ash. That'll come up in the later chapters.**

 **Misty also makes an appearance, and here she's going to compete in the Indigo League. The gym leaders are more like their game versions - more on that in the next chapter.In any case, see ya! Tell. Me what you thought about this chapter, and don't just go onto another page on your browser. Reviews, favs and follows make me happy, and I'll make sure to respond to each review and not just the questions, either by PM or at the end of the next chapter.**

 **-Warsofshadows**


	2. The Forest

**Hey everybody! Thanks for all the reviews, favs and follows last chapter. It meant a lot. Anyway, it took more than three weeks to get this out, so I hope that it makes up for the long wait!**

XxXxX

 _Chapter Two: The Forest_

Train.

 _Traintraintraintraintrain_.

That was the only thing Ash, Natalie and Jack did for six hours straight in the Centre's training field – well, it was mainly Ash and Natalie who trained their pokémon, since, much to Jack's disappointment, Einstein the Abra was inside his pokeball in one of his eighteen-hour naps and Buford the Mankey only worked out for two hours before succumbing to his need for Twinkies. Still, Buford had impressed the group of trainers by his fine use of Karate Chop and Seismic Tossing Natalie's Charmander over the field.

Ash had always thought training was easy, but now he knew.

While Natalie had worked on teaching Charmander Metal Claw, Ash had focused on helping Saur make his in-bred moves more powerful and helped Delphi do whatever Oak had told him. Saur spent most of the time either letting loose a flurry of leaves at rocks scattered around the place or lashing at other objects with his vines. Power Whip and Magical Leaf were coming out well, but the same couldn't be said for Leaf Storm.

The first time Saur had used Leaf Storm, he'd almost decapitated everyone. The dinosaurian pokémon was furious with himself, and spent the next half hour trying to perfect at least a diluted version of Leaf Storm, until Ash told him to stop when he saw the entire place shrouded with leaves.

He didn't even realise it was nightfall when he ended the training session; it was only when he dropped to his knees and fell flat on his back did he see the stars coming out, declaring night-time. As goose pimples erupted on his skin as the wind blew over him, he turned to his exhausted pokémon. "You guys did great today. I'm really proud of you. Take a rest now, okay?"

Saur simply wheezed as Ash recalled him inside his pokeball; even Delphi was too exhausted to get angrily at Ash for putting her into suspended animation. The bird absolutely despised the device, and Ash didn't argue with her staying out. He didn't want to be at the receiving end of one of her Night Shades.

Ash stumbled to the front desk of the Pokémon Centre, his legs too sore for him to run. He was glad when he finally saw Nurse Joy's smiling face in front of him.

"Hello, Mr Ketchum. I assume that you are done with training for the day?" she said.

Ash just nodded dumbly. He was too tired to even say anything.

Joy smirked. "Why don't you sit down? I'll have your pokémon healed in no time."

Ash muttered a thank you and trudged to a nearby table. His eyelids were heavy and he stifled a huge yawn. He was so tired. It wouldn't hurt to sleep...

His head bumped against his chest once, twice, thrice... _Just for some time..._

Suddenly something sharp poked him in his ribs and Ash squealed in pain, waking up abruptly. "Ouch!" Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he glared at his attacker. His scowl didn't lessen when he saw Jack's face looming over him, leftover crumbs of Twinkies spread around his lips.

"Wake up, lazybones," he said. "Nurse Joy's been calling for you for fifteen minutes."

That definitely woke him up. "Wha – why didn't you wake me sooner?"

Jack snorted. The entire Centre was empty He brought out his hands from behind him and tossed two pokeballs at Ash. "I took the liberty of getting your pokémon. Who's your best bud?"

"Don't answer that." Ash turned to his right to see Natalie plop down beside him. "But, Jack, that was a nice thing you did."

Jack feigned shock and anger. "What? I simply ooze niceness, Summer! I'ma—"

"—eat some more Twinkies?" Ash joked. Natalie burst out laughing, and even Jack snorted in amusement.

"Maybe." He inhaled a few more of the stuff. Then he yawned, giving Ash a full view of the half-eaten Twinkies mashed in his mouth, soggy crumbs stuck between the grooves of his molars. That was a visual he could've done without. "I'm tired. Let's call it a night, guys."

Natalie yawned too. "Fine. I never knew training could tire you out so much."

"At least you got to train," Jack said darkly. "I bet Einstein's going to wake up at three in the night and demand he trains. Da—"

Suddenly the lights went out and everything turned pitch-black. Ash frowned in confusion. "A power outage?" the boy said.

"I don't know," he heard Natalie say. She sounded worried.

Then there was a loud crash and the trio flinched at the sound. They looked up to see the skylight broken, and when their eyes trailed down they saw three silhouettes directly below the broken skylight – a man, a woman and a...a Meowth. The humans wore similar uniforms – a white uniform with a large red R on the chest.

Ash's blood ran cold. "Team Rocket!"

Nurse Joy snarled. "You two've got some nerve, this place while _I'm_ on duty!"

"Three," the Meowth corrected, pointing at itself with a claw. "You forgot ta include me."

Ash was so surprised when he heard the Meowth talk that his lower jaw threatened to dislodge from his upper one. Jack's eyes widened in shock and dropped the Twinkie in his hand.

" _Puh_ -lease," the male drawled. He had neck-length Violet hair and a feminine body language. "What are you and that pink egg going to do, huh? Sit on us?"

His female companion snorted. "Hand over all the pokémon you have, _Nursie_. And you three kids – hand over whatever pokémon you have, and maybe we won't beat you up."

"Nice joke," Natalie hissed. "You want our friends, you have to get through us."

The lady smirked. "Pffft. Get through you. Yeah, right. Looks like we got some heroes, eh, James?"

James cracked his knuckles. "Let's teach those kids a lesson they'll never forget."

Ash, Natalie and Jack glanced at each other and nodded. At once there were six flashes of light as each trainer pressed the release button on their pokeballs, and their pokémon materialised on the floor.

"Alright, Saur," Ash told the little grass type. "Let's beat these Rockets up."

James's eyes widened once he saw their pokémon, then his face twisted into a smile. "Not rare, but incredibly uncommon. The boss will love these little monsters, Jessie."

Jessie nodded and released a larger-than-average Ekans. It coiled instantly on the floor and rattled its tail, hissing to reveal a forked tongue that ran along its sharp fangs. It fixed its bright yellow eyes onto Ash and the purple scales on its body glittered in the moonlight.

James smirked and sent out his own pokémon – a Koffing. The noxious creature's hide was the same colour as Ekans' scales, only a shade lighter. It kept pumping puffs of noxious gases into the air every few moments and, like most of its species, had a dreamy expression on its face.

Ash didn't know much about the two pokémon in front and of him, so he ran down everything that he knew to himself: _Ekans and Koffing. Poison types. Ekans have powerful bites and are quite fast. Koffing have tough bodies, and are known to Selfdestruct._

"Saur," Ash told his friends, "take Ekans. Hit it with Power Whip, but if it comes close use Tackle. Delphi, take on Koffing. Don't get close to it. Strike with Night Shade from every direction with the help of Teleport. Got it?"

Delphi chirped in acknowledgement while Saur growled deeply. His eyes narrowed and two vines extended from under his bulb.

To his left, Natalie's Charmander was brandishing his claws and his pupils were narrowed to slits. Zephyr was shrieking a challenge to the Rocket pokémon as she flapped her wings to stay in the air.

Buford the Mankey was jumping excitedly, his paws curled to form fists. Einstein the Abra was fast asleep in his pokeball.

"Let's go!" Jack yelled.

It was complete pandemonium. Attacks sprayed across the room, causing the trio of trainers and Nurse Joy to drop to the floor to avoid them. The Rockets, however, were still standing up and laughing at them, at least until Saur – accidentally, of course – smacked James in his gut with a Power Whip that probably knocked his stomach into his butt.

Saur and Charmander were attacking Ekans with a continuous onslaught of Embers and Power Whips that made the serpentine beast wince in pain whenever the two starter pokémon scored hits on it. The Ekans wriggled uncomfortably, then lunged at Saur and Charmander once again.

"Dragon Dance," Natalie ordered. "Then Metal Claw!"

Charmander squeezed his eyes shut as he focused his minute draconian energy into his core, glowing a faint shade of scarlet and purple. The entire process took twenty-five seconds, leaving the reptile open to Ekans' attacks, but Saur helped out his companion by countering Ekans.

Then Charmander lunged at a much faster pace and slashed his partially-metallic claws at Ekans. The serpentine pokémon winced in pain, but Charmander continued to slash at it.

Each time he scored a hit, Charmander's claws hardened further.

Koffing, however, seemed to be much stronger than its companion pokémon. Buford, Zephyr and Delphi seemed to equally match the gas pokémon. Delphi kept dodging its Tackle attacks by teleporting away, but Zephyr and Buford were not so lucky. The Pidgey seemed to be struggling to stay conscious from both the toxic fumes exuded from Koffing's body and the tough hide that collided against him every so often. Finally, Koffing slammed into him once again and knocked the bird out.

Natalie let out a howl of rage and ordered Charmander to direct his attacks to Koffing. Unfortunately, that left Saur alone against Ekans.

"Power Whip!" Ash ordered, but Ekans slithered away from the vine, which struck the floor and cracked a tile beneath it.

"Bite!" Jessie called out. "Put that Bulbasaur down."

Ekans hissed furiously and lunged at Saur, its enlarged fangs gleaming black, but Ash wasn't having it.

"Saur, jump!"

At the last second, Saur pushed his heavy body upwards, both with his stubby legs and his powerful vines, and Ekans utterly missed him, skidding across the floor. The snake yelped in pain when the Bulbasaur landed on its scaly body, crushing Ekans under his weight.

"OOWWCH!"

Ash wheeled around in horror to see Meowth hanging off Natalie's back, its claws digging into her skin. The girl was furiously trying to shake Meowth off her back, but the feline creature's grip was like steel. It was not letting go.

Ash mentally smacked himself. He'd completely forgotten about Meowth. How could he be so _stupid_?!

While Ash looked at the scene with horror, Charmander rushed to the aid of his trainer and delivered powerful slashes at Meowth with his powerful claws. Meowth screeched in pain and immediately let go, but the damage was done – the back of her top was shredded and blood was tricking out of the wounds.

Before Ash or Jack could make a move, however, a flash of bright light filled the room.

"ENOUGH!" a feminine voice yelled.

A pink blob hurtled across the room a crushed Koffing beneath its weight, then headed towards Ekans as the poison gas pokémon slowly deflated, unconscious. It picked up the serpentine pokémon by the tail and whirled it in the air before throwing it to the ground and jumping onto it.

Nurse Joy took a menacing step out of the shadows, her hair a mess and a furious expression Ash thought he'd never find on her face. "I will say this _once_ ," she snarled, breathing heavily. "OUT!"

The two Rockets quickly recalled their fallen pokémon and scurried out of the Pokémon Centre.

Nurse Joy wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. "The next time I see them, I swear to Arceus..."

She turned and glared at the trio of trainers. "As for you three!" she snapped. "What made you think you could take on a criminal organisation?! You're lucky they were just lower grunts, and not admins that could pound you into mush!"

Ash and Jack looked down guiltily, but before Nurse Joy could continue to rant Natalie dropped down like a sack of rocks.

Nurse Joy paled at that and immediately forgot about shouting at the kids. Instead, she told the pokémon the took out Ekans and Koffing – Blissey, she called it – to bring out a stretched and ordered the two boys to recall their pokémon so that she could heal them. Apparently slashes from a Meowth were just too much for a ten year old, so Natalie had to spend the rest of the night in one of the recovery rooms.

"Women," Jack told Ash sagely as they made their way to their rooms in the Centre. "They switch moods so quickly."

Ash gulped. For what seemed like the first time in eternity, Jack was correct.

XxXxX

Ash woke up early the next morning and rushed to the front desk to receive his pokémon. While he was scared that they had been thoroughly beat up from the battle against the Rockets, Nurse Joy had told him that they'd suffered only minor injuries. He immediately sent out Delphi and Saur, who greeted their trainer in a series of growls and chirps.

"Nurse, how's Natalie?" Ash asked tentatively, scratching Saur's head.

"Ms Summers?" The nurse's eyebrows creased. "She was released an hour ago! She headed to the Battle Club I told you about with Mr Fernandez."

"Wha?" Ash blinked. "They just left me? Nurse Joy, could you tell me where the Battle Club is?"

"It's on the eastern side of the city, a few blocks away from the gym," she said, not even looking up from the computer.

Ash dipped his head and rushed to the cafeteria gobbling down a hasty breakfast of sausages before returning his friends and exiting the Centre. He wanted to train Saur on Natalie and Jack for leaving him alone at the Pokémon Centre, but first he had to find them. Filled to the brim with energy, he raced behind the first speeding taxi he saw, accidentally scaring the driver by waving at her when he caught up to the cab.

XxXxX

During the drive to the Battle Club, Ash browsed through his brother's TM case. He'd never actually known what TMs Red had put in there, aside from Energy Ball, which he'd given Jack to use on Einstein so that they could catch a pokémon. Hopefully Red had given him attacking TMs, and not copies of Double Team.

Energy Ball, Toxic, Iron Tail, Steel Wing, Stone Edge, Shadow Ball, Mega Punch and Protect. Ash shrugged. Red had packed him a good collection of TMs. Maybe when he'd catch a varied team, he could use these TMs on them, but for now his team was limited.

According to the TM case, Saur could learn Energy Ball and Toxic and Protect. Energy Ball would be a good move to attack from a distance, since Magical Leaf and Leaf Storm were practically just stronger variants of Razor Leaf. Toxic would be another good move, but to immobilise opponents. Unlike other toxins, Toxic delivered a potent and lethal dose of poison into the target's system. It didn't matter how powerful the pokémon was – if it couldn't get rid of the poison or if it wasn't immune to it, it would be finished in a matter of moments.

Delphi was compatible with Shadow Ball and Toxic. Shadow Ball was technique that involved the user to collect alien, _unworldly_ energy to form a concentrated sphere of said energy. Delphi already knew Night Shade, which involved the same ghostly power, so the Natu wouldn't take time to master Shadow Ball.

In the meantime, Ash had just one thing on his mind: _train_. Unlike yesterday, he now knew exactly how to help his friends get stronger. He just wanted to get to the Battle Club; according to Nurse Joy, the place had much more facilities than the Pokémon Centre and focused solely on helping trainers train their pokémon.

"Here is your destination," the driver said in a monotonous voice.

Ash quickly got out of the cab and paid the fare to the driver. Although the distance to the Battle Club wasn't that great and he could've walked instead, Ash didn't want to expend any of his energy. He wanted it to save it so that he could really get into training. Pockets considerably lighter, Ash turned around and his mouth fell open.

The Battle Club was _enormous_. It looked more like a gym than anything, with a big glass dome encompassing the back. The main building seemed like a small dot in a wide, grassy area. It was circular in shape and had more glass windows than Ash cared to count. A logo of a slightly stretched battlefield, half grey and hand red, was shown above the sliding glass doors that gave trainers entrance.

"Whoa." Ash grinned. Without wasting another second, he rushed inside.

The interior was even more impressive. There was a large gymnasium which contained everything from treadmills to punching bags to dumbbells. Two large swimming pools allowed water type pokémon to show their prowess. A door connected the building to several battlefields at the back, should trainers battle each other, and a library with multiple computers and millions of shelves of books for researching pokémon.

The best part was the large cafeteria, which Ash immediately hit to order a quadruple-decker bacon-and-cheese grilled sandwich.

Ash inhaled his food in three chomps, wolfing down the chunks and not even bothering to finely grind and chop the food. A few trainers shot him uneasy and nervous looks, but Ash didn't care. He _loved_ food.

"Arceus, I knew I'd recognise you by the way you eat," a disapproving voice said. Ash whipped around and saw Natalie, her face stuck midway between disgust and an urge to laugh, and Jack, who – predictably – had a Twinkie in his mouth.

Natalie wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Don't you ever stop eating?"

"Tell that to Jack!" he shot back.

"That oaf won't change no matter what," Natalie replied calmly and disdainfully, ignoring said boy's irritated glare. "We can only hope that he doesn't get worse."

Jack snarled. "You shut your mouth, you little—"

"Hey, how come you guys ditched me back at the Centre, huh?" Ash asked to drown out whatever Jack was going to say, annoyed.

Natalie looked utterly unabashed. "You overslept," she said simply. "We didn't want to waste further time. Besides, Jack needed to restock on his Twinkies, or else he and Buford get _really_ cranky."

Ash chuckled. "Yeah. Twinkies are like drugs for Jack."

"I am _not_ dependent on Twinkies!" Jack exclaimed hotly. "I just – it – I mean—"

Ash and Natalie listened patiently as Jack struggled to rant for fifteen minutes about how he wasn't obsessed with Twinkies until they decided to move on and begin their training session. On Ash's shoulder, Delphi crooned in delight as she nibbled on a potato chip. The boy petted her lightly and she chirped once again.

Ash cracked a grin. He couldn't wait to get started. Norse Joy had hyped him so much since yesterday, and he would be let down if the Battle Club was an understatement.

"Come one, girl." Ash looked at the Natu on his shoulder. "We've got work to do."

With that, Ash recalled her into her pokeball and walked to his first stop – the training rooms.

XxXxX

Ash made his way to the second floor of the Battle Club, which held only private training areas. According to the guide, it was open for trainers for an entire day, but, since nothing came for free, trainers had to dish out money to rent the rooms for a day. $850 was a steep price, and Natalie and Jack had shied away from renting a room, but Ash was ready to pay the amount if it would help his friends to get stronger.

Ash swiped the access card against the reader, which beeped and caused the door to click open. Ash pushed his way inside, switched the lights on and glanced at the room with a slight smile.

Ash took out Red's old TM Case from his bag and ran his fingers across the disks of data in the case. He'd made his decision to give Saur and Delphi TMs so that they could widen their move pool. Almost all of Saur's moves were in-bred, so it would only be when he was an Ivysaur or a Venusaur when he would be able to actually use them. At such a young age, all Ash could hope for the seed pokémon was to at least master whatever he could right now, however flimsy it may be.

Delphi was something else. He knew she wouldn't stand a chance against Brock's rock-type pokémon, so he'd have to train her on travelling trainers in the Viridian Forest. Ash was betting that almost all of them would be "Bug Catchers", so the bird would grow a fair bit stronger in the forest.

He booted the Energy Ball TM first, then inserted Saur's pokeball in the required slot. The machine whirred for a few seconds, shaking a bit until it stopped, and Ash happily took out the Bulbasaur's pokeball and the Energy Ball TM, replacing them with Delphi's pokeball and the Shadow Ball TM respectively.

Once everything was done, Ash let loose his two friends, who growled and chirped happily at their trainer. Ash grinned at them and petted the two before standing up, the two pokémon waiting for his commands.

"Alright, we've got work to do." Ash grinned at them. "I've given you guys new attacks, so we'll try them out right now. Okay?"

Saur nodded, his scarlet eyes gleaming at the prospect. He stomped at the ground in excitement while Ash walked over to a digital pad on the wall, pressing the 'start' button after pressing the number '3' on the keypad. The boy was just glad that the manager – a huge man who went by the name of Don George – explained how the training room worked, so he wouldn't be wasting much time trying to figure it out.

At the back of the room, three slots let out targets to practice on. They had the primary shape of a human, although they dummies weren't as fragile as they looked. According to the manager, they were carved out of solid rock and could take a better beating than the average human. At this stage, all Ash could hope for was for Saur and Delphi to destroy them.

"Saur, you're up." Saur nodded and trotted over to face the target at the extreme right, while Delphi hopped onto Ash's shoulder, causing the boy to wince slightly as her talons dug into his skin, although it didn't hurt more than prick him.

"Energy Ball."

Saur closed his eyes for a few seconds, focusing as the bulb on his back glowed green faintly. A moment later, he opened his maw, drawing light to form an orb of green energy before releasing it and blasting the target with it. To Ash's delight, cracks spread from the point of impact until the dummy seemed to be covered in a cobweb.

"Great job, Saur!" Ash congratulated. Delphi chirped in agreement thrilled in happiness. The boy then looked at Delphi. "You're next, girl."

The Natu nodded and hopped to face the same target which Saur had practiced on. She eyed it eagerly before her eyes glowed a deep purple and she formed an orb of black, alien energy in her beak. With a piercing cry, she fired it at the target, engulfing the stone dummy in smoke as the ball of ghostly energy blasted upon impact.

A good chunk of the target was blown to pieces, with only about three-fourth of it remaining, so now it looked like a zombie. Still, Saur and Delphi had done quite well for their strength. Ash had no doubt that they would be powerhouses in a few months time.

Ash grinned. Those were big dreams, but now he had to focus on the present. "You guys did great. Keep it up and Brock will be a piece of cake."

A series of growls and chirps met his statement. Now that he was sure that there had been nothing wrong with the TMs, the boy decided to focus on training them for their other moves. "Saur, practice Power Whip on another target. We've got a lot of time, so keep focusing your energy in your vines as long as you can before letting it loose, but don't do it for too long. Got it? Delphi, you come with me. We'll be working on Drill Peck."

Ash watched Saur lash the target a few times before being jarred back to reality by Delphi, who nipped at his fingers to get his attention. Ash sucked his bleeding finger for a moment before focusing on the Natu.

"Drill Peck!" he ordered. Delphi leapt high into the air, her beak glowing a bright white as it began to extend in length and harden. She began to spin mid-air, but a second into the attack the bird lost her balance, completely missed the target and ended up stabbing Saur in the butt.

"Are you guys alright?" he asked concernedly as Saur and Delphi began resurfacing. Saur was glaring angrily at the Natu as he absent-mindedly caressed his posterior with one vine, while Delphi was shrieking aggressively at Saur in return.

It took a while for Ash to stop the two from going to attack each other, which involved Ash promising Saur extra food for lunch and dinner. He wouldn't be surprised if his two friends would have some bad blood between them for some time at least.

"Okay, Delphi." Ash pursed his lips. "Why don't you just try getting that spinning motion, huh? Professor Oak said that it'd be easier to learn Drill Peck that way."

Delphi simply shrugged and hopped over to her place in front of the partially-destroyed dummy. She puffed out her chest proudly, crouched, then launched herself into the air.

This time was much better. As soon as she reached the maximum height, she began to spin in a corkscrewing motion. Ash caught her just before she would've slammed into the rock-hard dummy, which was perfectly safe since her beak wasn't powerful enough to stab him.

A few tries later, Ash and Delphi decided to take one step further. Delphi tensed her legs, and then she pushed up, springing herself into the air.

She spun like a drill and slammed into the target, causing no visible damage save for a small gouge where she pecked it. The Natu puffed out her chest, proud of herself for performing the attack. Ash tossed her a treat and let her go at it a few more times so that he could turn his attention to Saur.

Saur grunted at Ash and retracted his vine, waving it at Ash as if to say hi. Ash waved back at his friend. "Okay, Saur. Show me Power Whip."

Saur nodded and grimaced in concentration as his vine glowed. Unlike the previous few times, his vine was glowing a fine shade of purple as he focused all his strength in it. Then fast as a viper Saur lashed out at the target, swinging downwards and breaking it in half. The two halves creaked for a few seconds before finally breaking apart and falling to the ground.

"Great work, Saur. I guess you've got the hang of Power Whip, however crude it is, so start working on Magical Leaf. Its basically Razor Leaf charged with a some amount of potential energy. So start by learning Razor Leaf, and then..."

XxXxX

Ash stifled a yawn as he handed over the access card to Don George, who said, "Hope to see ya again!" and walked off, leaving Ash in a deserted corridor. He'd practically spent the entire day in the Battle Club's training room, taking a break only for a quick lunch before Saur, Delphi and he went back to the Battle Club to continue training. By the end of the day the three of them were dead-tired, and Saur didn't even remember Ash's promise about giving him extra food.

Natalie and Jack, who weren't as crazy about training as Ash was, had headed back to the Pokémon Centre two hours before Ash had. He'd met Natalie at the cafeteria after giving his pokémon to Nurse Joy and eaten with her before collecting his pokémon from the nurse.

Ash quickly took a shower and cleaned his friends, too. Delphi had first shied away from a bath, but once she felt the pleasantly warm water on her small body, it was all over.

Once Ash, Saur and Delphi had dried up they'd made their way to their room. Since there were more trainers than usual this week, Ash and Jack had been asked to share a room, which the two boys didn't have a problem with.

Jack was already sleeping on the bed, spread-eagled and covering nearly three-fourths of. Neither Einstein nor his Mankey were released, which meant that Buford the Mankey was too hyperactive to sleep and that Jack's Abra's sleep cycle was up. That wasn't the same with Ash's pokémon, however. Delphi immediately hopped onto the perch in the room and fell asleep, while Saur dozed off on the pillow and bedsheets Ash had set for him the previous night.

Ash yawned and dropped onto the bed. He set his hat on the hanger before darkness overtook him and he drifted off to sleep.

XxXxX

The next morning, the three of them woke up simultaneously at the crack of dawn to get ready. Ash had set the alarm to be extra noisy so that they'd able to cover more ground that day. The only problem was that they'd forgotten to pack their supplies last night, so they hurriedly made their way to the pokémart to stock up.

It took about half an hour to get everything; Natalie was in charge of basic necessities like repels, potions, etc., while Ash and Jack visited the local supermarket. Natalie had told them to get stuff like sandwich supplies, orange juice and pokémon food, but they'd also purchased ready to cook meals, packs of cheese curls, cola, and (obviously) a bunch of Twinkies.

Finally, they were ready to tackle the forest. Ash, Natalie and Jack were jumping with excitement. It was a half an hour walk to the Viridian Forest gate, and it was only nine-thirty in the morning, so they could walk at a leisurely pace instead of rushing.

In any case, they had to discuss strategies along the way and help each other out. Whatever people said, Brock was no slouch. His parents were skilled trainers, so Ash was sure that they'd began shaping him into a Gym Leader at a young age. Like Red had said, trainers only thought of them as being at the bottom of the food chain since beginning trainers normally hit there first to win a gym badge, so he wouldn't underestimate him.

Not to mention that, if he lost his very first gym battle, Gary would mock him till his dying day.

Ash let loose Delphi, who ruffled her tiny wings and squawked at Ash upon coming out. Ash petted her once before informing her about his plans.

"Well, you know the drill," Ash told her with a smile once they finally reached the gate. "Let's get through this forest."

His pokémon chirped and crooned in agreement. Ash grinned as the Natu hopped onto his shoulder, then plunged through the gate with his friends.

XxXxX

Each of them, both trainers and pokémon, saw a lot of action on the first day. They battled a lot of trainers, and while most of them (about 99% of them) were bug catchers – trainers who simply caught easily available bugs in the surroundings and battled with them – they battled a few trainers who had varied teams than the generic bugs. Ash, Natalie and Jack were irritated of battling bug catchers again and again, but since there weren't any other types of trainers they had to make do with them.

The main reason bug catchers were so irksome were that they had only bugs on their team – and not high-levelled bugs, mind you; bugs like Caterpie and Weedle and Paras that would get crushed easily by the simplest of blows. The more annoying part was that the bug catchers would whine once they lost and throw a tantrum for a few minutes before the winning trainer would threaten to train his/her pokémon on them and take their prize money.

Which meant that the trio of trainers had to face grown kids cry on their loss every single time.

However, he mused that he shouldn't have been too surprised. Bug catchers caught and trained bug pokémon because they evolve very quickly – at the most in a matter of three weeks. This could be the reason why said bug catchers were so sore about their loss: they obviously didn't know why their bug wasn't evolving after mere hours of training.

Natalie had an easy time through the forest. Her Charmander could easily torch them with a single Ember and knock them out, and he seemed to grow so much stronger that he began knocking out the chrysalis stages – Kakuna and Metapod, for example – with a single flame. At this point the girl had sent out Zephyr, and the Pidgey took her teammate's place by singlehandedly knocking out a team of two Caterpie, a Weedle and a Kakuna with a series of Wing Attacks.

Jack also had a fun time battling in the forest. Buford's rage was just too much for the weaker bugs, so during those fights Jack sent out Einstein, who was fortunately awake at that time, instead of the Mankey. It took several Energy Balls to win each battle, but Jack was just happy that his Abra had no lost a single fight.

Ash's pokémon took utter joy in thrashing the bugs. Saur didn't let the type disadvantage deter him and proceeded to obliterate every single bug catcher he faced. His Power Whip had certainly improved, so it was now a horrendously scarier version of Vine Whip. His Energy Ball was also perfect, and he'd proved that when he'd snagged a foe Spearow out of the air.

Delphi was also doing much better, although not at par with Saur. Ash figured that she was just handicapped by her evolutionary stage, since her wings and body weren't fully developed right now. She'd be able to use her full potential when she would eventually evolve into a Xatu.

Still, she wasn't a slouch. She had effectively defeated all her opponents with her crude-yet-effective Drill Peck. She was finally getting the spinning motion right, so it would only be a matter of time before she would hone it into a weapon of devastating power.

Ash watched with glee as Delphi took down a Ledyba by a well-aimed Night Shade to the chest. The bug type's eyes rolled in the back of its head and it dropped to the ground, unconscious.

A smug expression played across Ash's face as the opponent bug catcher grumbled as he pushed a wad of cash into the boy's hand. He recalled his fallen Ledyba and walled away, probably to hang out with the rest of his bug-catcher friends.

"Want to set camp now?" Jack asked. Ash looked up at him, coming to a halt as he wiped a bead sweat from his grimy and dirty face. The sun was setting, painting the sky orange as it touched the horizon. Natalie dropped down onto a cluster of rocks, chugging water from her flask.

Ash shrugged. "I don't know. I was thinking of catching a pokémon before calling it a night."

Natalie yawned. "I'm tired. Why don't we go and catch some pokémon tomorrow? Anyway, it's not like you'll find anything other than Ratatta or those bugs. The best you could hope for would be a Spearow."

"Actually," Ash said, "I was planning to catch a Pikachu or something. Professor Oak told us that there's this feature on the pokédex with which we can track—"

"But Pikachu are really rare and elusive in Viridian Forest, right?" She pursed her lips. "I don't know, Ash. Maybe we should just wait until morning. It'll be clearer to catch a pokémon, too."

Ash glanced at Jack, who just shrugged, like, _Just go with it._

"Okay," Ash relented. "Fine."

About half an hour later camp was ready, with a crackling, warm fire in the centre, encircled by stones. They'd picked up a nice spot in a clearing, but the only thing they didn't have was fresh water. It was a good thing that Jack had insisted on carrying four litres of cola, although the boy had already finished one litre all by himself.

When they finally were done chatting, they let loose their pokémon and began to train – it would take about two and a half weeks for them to trek through the forest, so they to utilise all the time that they got. The many battles during the day had obviously made each pokémon much stronger, but they still needed to hone their skills.

Sine there wasn't any equipment on hand, the trio of trainers and their pokémon proceeded to obliterate their surroundings. Jack took Buford and Einstein (who was thankfully awake at the time) to a cluster of boulders, where Buford could teach Einstein Seismic Toss. Ash didn't see how that was possible, but since Jack said that the pokédex said so, Ash had to take his word for it.

Natalie had Charmander scratching at a rock so that he could master Metal Claw. The fire-type could now gouge rocks pretty well, but according to Natalie it wasn't perfect yet and Charmander still had to practice it a lot. Zephyr kept flying speedily in order to learn Quick Attack.

Saur was doing well overall, but Ash had found a new exercise for him. Before setting on his journey, Red had told Ash numerous ways to train a Bulbasaur. Some of it was too extreme and suitable only for aa Venusaur or Ivysaur, but Ash remembered some of the exercises for a Bulbasaur. Saur was now lifting rocks for a long amount of time to strengthen his vines. His longest record was seven minutes before Ash lost count, and Saur now kept lifting every heavy item he found.

Moves like Power Whip and Magical Leaf were still far from complete, although Saur took a few seconds less to muster up the required energy for the attack. It would probably get easier when he evolved.

Delphi was improving as well. Her Drill Pecks were on point, and her Night Shades and Teleports were perfect, so Ash made her keep attacking trees. Every time she jumped, slipping into the spinning motion became easier.

Once they were all exhausted and done training, they had a quick dinner and changed into their night clothes. Everyone was too tired to say anything as Natalie doused the fire and slipped into their sleeping bags.

"G'night, guys..." Ash yawned as Saur burrowed into him, wrapping his vines around his trainer in a protective manner while Delphi hopped onto a tree branch to keep a lookout for trouble. Her ability allowed her to remain awake for long periods of time before she would have the need for sleep.

However, Ash did not have any such abilities, and as soon as he closed his eyes he fell into a deep slumber.

XxXxX

"Pssst. Hey Ash. Ash! _Pssst_!"

Ash frowned and awoke to someone continuously prodding him in his side. He blinked the gunk out of his eyes as he waited for them to adjust to the light, except for the fact that there was _no_ light.

Instead, it was very, _very_ dark. By the looks of it, it was midnight and Ash couldn't see a thing except for vague silhouettes for objects.

A figure was standing above him, an inch away from each other. Ash couldn't recognise him, but the shock of curly hair was unmistakable.

"Jack?" Ash whispered, incredulous. "What're you – why aren't you sleeping!"

"Shhhhh!" Jack hissed, quickly putting a finger over his lips. "Man, stop talking like you were born with a loudspeaker in your mouth! I don't wanna wake up Natalie." He glanced nervously in the sleeping girl's direction.

"Okay..." Ash eyed Jack sceptically. "What are you doing, anyway?"

Suddenly Jack burst into a fit of giggles and snorts and clutched his sides. Ash was confused as Jack went on sniggering until Natalie shifted in her sleep and muttered something about Charmander.

Once they were sure that Natalie was fast asleep, Jack began with his story. He giggled a bit before Ash glared at him and told him to get on with it. "S-So, I woke up so that I could c-catch a pokémon," he said, still snickering slightly. "I took out my pokédex and put the flashlight on, 'cuz it's really dark, ya know. So I tried to search for a Hoothoot and I was searching for one for an hour until I finally found one!"

Jack fell into another fit of giggles, but Ash just stared at the boy. So far, he hadn't found anything even remotely hilarious.

"So," the curly-haired boy continued, "I told Einstein to attack, but he missed a couple of times until the Hoothoot just gave up and flew away. I tried to catch it by throwing a ball at it, but it missed and hit a branch instead."

"And?" Ash probed.

"The pokeball obviously fell down – 'cuz, y'know, gravity and all that – but then this sleeping Pineco fell out of the tree, landed on the pokeball, and captured itself!"

This time Jack didn't bother to keep himself quiet, exploding into a round of laughter, but Ash prepared himself for that. He lunged onto Jack, covering the boy's mouth with his hand and locking Jack so that he couldn't make any noise by moving.

"Are you saying," Ash hissed into Jack's ear, "that you woke me up at midnight—"

"One AM."

"—at one AM just to tell me that you accidentally captured a Pineco?!"

Jack nodded and smirked.

Ash sighed. "Go back to sleep, Jack."

XxXxX

The net several days passed without much event, if you didn't count battling countless bug catchers ever so often. Trainers grew varied as they trekked through the undergrowth of the forest, having more than just bugs; Ash encountered one that had both genders of Nidoran, and another who pulled out a Growlithe, who Ash lost to. Most of the trainers had much more powerful pokémon than the ones they'd encountered earlier in the forest. Many bugs catchers now sported bugs like Beedrill and Ariados, while few had exotic pokémon from regions like Sinnoh or Unova. There was a memorable incident when a bug catcher had brought forth a little crustacean that its trainer had called "Dwebble", although its rocky shell proved no match for Charmander's claws.

All of their pokémon had progressed a lot. The numerous battles had toughened them up and made them stronger in both mind and body. Zephyr had grown in size and a small, red tuft had grown on his head, while Charmander's skin had taken a darker shade and a bump was present on the back of his head. Both their evolutions were nearing.

Saur was nearing evolution as well. The symbiotic plant on his back had grown larger and the tips of the sepals protecting the plant had turned a light pink. He had also mastered Poison and Sleep Powder, which would be valuable attacks in battle. Although they probably wouldn't do much to the tough, craggy hides of rock pokémon, the spores would be able to incapacitate foes with ease.

Delphi had grown too. Her wings had grown considerably larger and her previously-blunt beak was slightly sharper. She had also finally perfected Drill Peck, and Ash had happily given her as many treats as she had wanted that day.

Although Jack was more lax about training than Natalie or Ash, his pokémon had grown strong too, although they didn't seem to be on par with the other's' pokémon. According to Jack, Einstein could finally communicate a bit with his trainer, which showed that he was going to evolve into a Kadabra in another two weeks or so. Buford's muscles were bigger and he packed more powerful punches. Jack's Pineco, whom the boy had dubbed as Diego, was far behind his other two partners but he certainly was no slouch in the battling department.

Although Ash had made a note to capture a pokémon, it hadn't been easy to do so, and the hours he'd spent looking had little to show: Pidgey, Rattata, Caterpie, Weedle, and the odd Spinarak – nothing worth catching. Ash kept wondering if these were the only pokémon in the world, because it really felt like it. Ash wanted to catch something worthwhile, like a Pikachu, but he never got to even see one.

Currently they were waiting for Jack to finish his battle with a travelling trainer just like them. Jack had pitted Diego against the trainer's Sandshrew, who seemed much more experienced than the bug type.

"Poison Sting," the trainer drawled lazily. The tip of Sandshrew's tail glowed purple and it rushed at Diego, stabbing the Pineco's hard shell.

Diego gurgled in pain, but it continued to keep standing. Jack looked downright nervous, and he frantically yelled out, "Selfdestruct!"

Ash and Natalie hit the ground as Diego glowed violently, storing energy in his form. The foe trainer tried to order his Sandshrew to knock out the sacrificing pokémon, but in vain.

Diego exploded with energy, kicking up dust as all the humans lay flat on the grassy ground. Ash wiped the mud out of his eyes before looking up at the devastated scene.

Diego was obviously out cold, and so was Sandshrew. Both trainers recalled their pokémon, but since the battle was a draw, neither trainer gave the other their prize money. Sandshrew's trainer simply looked at Jack in distaste before he walked away.

"Idiot." Natalie glared at Jack. "Why did you have to tell your Pineco to Selfdestruct?"

"B-But Diego was gonna get knocked out!" Jack stuttered. "I didn't wanna lose!"

"You could've taken the loss like a man instead of taking the coward's way," Natalie hissed.

"What're you, Miss Motivational Speaker of the Year?" Jack snapped hotly.

Ash sighed. "Stop it, guys. Can't you two lay off of each other for five minutes? It's driving me crazy."

Both of them looked at Ash with offended expressions, but Ash didn't stick around for more drama. He had already began walking away, and the other two trainers had no other choice but to follow him, albeit at a newer pace.

Maybe it was because of their situation, but their dirty clothes, matted hair and grime-stained faces had something to do with their frayed tempers. _Serves them right,_ Ash thought to himself angrily. _They never stop arguing... It'd drive anyone mad..._

Being closer to their destination had made them overexcited about finally reaching civilization, and impatient too. Squabbles and arguments broke out frequently among the trio, most of them on petty things. Their pokémon too were becoming restless as time went on in the forest.

They couldn't wait to get to Pewter.

In any case, they couldn't shorten the forest, so they spent most of their time training or battling trainers and wild pokémon. A few times Ash saw a Pikachu in the distance, but it skittered away almost immediately.

In the afternoon, they stopped for a quick lunch of tuna sandwiches that the three of them had prepared in the morning. Their pokémon quickly finished their tins of pokémon food, since their trainers were too tired to prepare anything for them. In any case, neither of their pokémon complained, since Jack was too nervous to not give Buford his share of Twinkies.

After an hour of rest, the trio of trainers packed up the remaining sandwiches and recalled their pokémon. Ash brushed off the bread crumbs on his shirt and addressed the other two. "Hey, guys," he said. "I want to catch a pokémon now. What do you say we go hunt for one now?"

Natalie nodded. "Sounds good. I want to capture a grass type, actually. It'll help me defeat Brock. Probably."

Ash grinned. "Alright, then. Let's get going!"

"Nah, you guys go ahead," Jack said, heaving a sigh. "I don't need to catch another pokémon right now."

Natalie put her hands on her hips. "Nuh-huh. You've got to come with us. You might get lost!"

"Jeez, Nat!" Jack exclaimed. "I don't need another mom in my life." But he agreed to go with them.

Ash nodded. "Let's get looking."

XxXxX

They'd spent a little over two hours searching, but so far Ash hadn't gotten lucky. Natalie, however, was a different matter altogether. They'd found a Shroomish basking in the sunlight half an hour before they had begun their search and Natalie's feet had barely touched the ground as she charged at it. Zephyr took it out in about ten seconds and received a few berries as a treat.

Ash spent another hour searching for a pokémon before he decided to give up. He turned and was about to tell his friends that they should just keep moving when a cry pierced the air:

"Baa-aa-aa!"

He instantly whirled his head to the direction of the sound. That wasn't like any call in the forest he was used to – he was utterly bored of Rattata whining and Caterpie mewing. He practically tripped over his own feet as he ran towards the noise, Jack and Natalie and his own pokémon not too far behind.

"Baa-aa-aa!" This time, the noise was closer. Ash kept running, and a good idea of what that pokémon was formed in his mind. It probably was as good as a Pikachu and Ash was glad to find a decent electric-type in the forest.

He turned around a corner and saw a Mareep grazing. It was around two feet tall, probably a good bit above his knees, and had a mass of fluffy, cream-coloured wool covering its entire body, as well as a curly tuft of wool in the middle of its head, which was blue, just like its four legs. Its tail was striped black and yellow, and had a red orb at the tip which glowed. Two conical horns jutted out from the side of its head, and they two were striped black and yellow.

It wasn't aware of the group's presence, mostly because they were extremely quite. Even Saur, who was itching for a battle, remained quiet. Delphi was perched on her trainer's shoulder and was eyeing the Mareep with interest.

"Okay, you two," Ash told Saur and Delphi in a voice that was barely a whisper. He didn't want to alert the Mareep. "Saur, hit is first with Vine Whip. If it tries to get away, catch it with your vines. If it does get away, it's up to you, Delphi. Teleport next to it and attack with Night Shade. Don't hold back. Got it?"

Saur growled softly in agreement; Delphi simply fixed her eyes determinedly at the grazing Mareep.

Saur's vines snaked towards Mareep through the grass, sliding around flowers. They were completely camouflaged by the tufts grass on the ground and it didn't look like Saur was giving anything away. Ash's heart skipped a beat when Mareep's tail twitched, but it didn't run away and now moved onto a sunflower.

A second later, all hell broke loose.

Saur whipped Mareep with such ferocity that the sound echoed like a gunshot and a few Pidgey flew off in the distance. Mareep cried out in pain and Ash winced as he saw the expression on its face.

Saur grinned and lashed out again, catching the pokémon in the neck. The Mareep was thrown to the ground, where it fell on its side and groaned in pain.

It didn't get knocked out, though, which made Ash want to catch the creature even more. It got right back up and looked around until it finally fixed its intelligent black eyes on the group.

Ash dropped to the ground to avoid a thin bolt of electricity that headed in Saur's way, and the Bulbasaur grimaced as he was shocked by the Thundershock. But Saur was made up of much stronger stuff, and he proved it by striking it again by Vine Whip.

This time, however, the electric-type was ready for the attack and jumped back, evading Saur's green tentacles. Its horns sparked with electricity, but then it thought better of it; instead, it turned away and scarpered. It was really fast.

"Go!" Ash yelled as he picked himself up from the ground. "Go, go, go!"

Delphi instantly vanished. Ash could see Mareep as a small, cream-coloured blur in the distance, but he was happy to see it halt and jump back in pain. Apparently Delphi had already reached it.

Mareep was loosing electricity in every direction, but Delphi was doing a good job teleporting away from the Thundershocks. She was firing black beams of ghostly energy from her beak that kept striking the Mareep on its body. A few times Ash saw Delphi firing perfect blobs of alien energy, and Ash took pride in the Shadow Balls she fired.

In the end Mareep just fell on the ground in exhaustion and was struggling to get up. Saur restrained it with his vines to make sure it was completely trapped. It couldn't move.

Ash grinned as he hurled the empty pokeball in his hand at the Mareep. The pokeball bounced against Mareep's forehead and sucked it in the form of red energy.

One shake, two shakes, three shakes, _click_.

The orb didn't move.

Ash put on a grin so huge that it was a wonder that his face didn't tear in half. He walked casually to the pokeball and picked it up, clipping it to his belt after minimising it into its diminutive form.

Jack grinned at Ash and clapped him on his shoulder. "Awesome catch, man." Natalie gave him the thumbs-up.

Ash smiled back at the duo. "Now that I caught my pokémon, let's go. Pewter awaits us."

Jack chuckled. "Man, that sounds like a really nice way to break up a chapter! It'd be a shame is someone ruined it by adding something lame." He munched on a Twinkie. "Jus' sayin'."

XxXxX

Later that day, after Ash, Natalie and Jack had set up camp and had their dinner, Ash decided to send Mareep out and make friends with it. It was probably tired and hurt from the brutal beating it'd received from both Saur and Delphi, so Ash needed to heal it up too. Maybe they'd even bond with each other, like Delphi and he had after the ruthless thrashing she'd got from the hardy grass-type.

Ash licked his plate clean and walked over to the running stream near where they were sleeping to wash his plate. They'd picked this spot because they'd run out of water and they didn't want to wash their utensils with cola. Ash washed his plate and packed it in his Hammerspace backpack. Recent developments in technology allowed for backpacks to have the same type of technology as pokeballs, so Ash could easily pack a bicycle if he wanted to without worrying his backpack getting heavy.

Ash quickly called Saur and Delphi, who were busy playing with Natalie's and Jack's pokémon. The two trotted – leapt, in Delphi's case – over to Ash and looked inquisitively at him.

"Okay, guys, I'm gonna let out Mareep." Delphi chirped in acknowledgement while Saur's eyes lit up in remembrance of the electric-type he'd faced earlier that day. "Be nice, okay? Don't attack unless it does."

The two nodded and stared at the pokeball in Ash's hand. He quickly tapped the release button and a beam of white energy burst forth.

Ash would've been electrocuted if it hadn't been for Saur. The grass-type leapt in front of Ash and took the Thundershock head-on. He winced in pain as electricity passed over his body, and the next second later he lashed out his vines at Mareep.

Mareep cried out in pain as Saur's tentacles wrapped around his fluffy body. Saur's vines were completely buried in Mareep's wool and his grip on the creature tightened, causing its eyes to bug out.

"Don't hurt him!" Ash cried out. He didn't want his newest partner hurt any more unless it was absolutely necessary. "He's just scared."

Saur hesitated, but slackened his grip on Mareep a few seconds later. He let the electric-type down, but his vines were still hovering around Mareep warily.

He would _not_ let his trainer get hurt. _Never_.

"Hey, Mareep." He kept his tone light. "Feeling good?" he asked, but he mentally smacked himself a split-second later. Obviously, with all the visible bruises on its body, Mareep wasn't feeling good.

Mareep simply glared at Ash. The boy noticed that its legs were trembling as they struggled to keep the creature upright, and he immediately felt a pang of guilt.

He removed a few potions from his bag. "Can I heal you? You don't look so good."

Mareep didn't do anything except for nod curtly and Ash went to work. He sprayed the potions on all of its wounds, which began to heal and fade within a few minutes. A particularly harsh mark was etched on its neck and Ash paid extra attention to it until it finally disappeared.

"There," he said, patting it slightly on its head. The Mareep glared at him for that. "Don't you feel better already?"

Mareep didn't respond at all. Instead, he kept watching Ash warily, but at least it didn't attack.

"Look, I'm not going to hurt you," Ash said softly. "I just want to be friends with you. I'm your trainer now, and these guys—'" he pointed at Delphi and Saur, "are your partners. Please listen to me. I just wanna help you get stronger."

Mareep's tail twitched and its eyes lit up at that. Ash grinned. He finally hit the spot.

"Okay, Mareep," he said soothingly, "I'm on my way to become the strongest trainer ever." Saur and Delphi snorted, like they knew this routine. "Will you help me on my journey?"

Mareep's eyes gleamed at the prospect and it nodded eagerly. Ash grinned wider and he patted Mareep, who at first shied away but then bleated under his touch.

Ash then took out his pokédex and flipped it open. When Mareep looked at it inquisitively, he told it what he was about to do. That seemed okay with it and continued to interact with Saur and Delphi, who were no longer angry with it for trying to hurt Ash.

 _Mareep, the wool pokémon,_ the pokédex said. _Mareep's fluffy coat rubs together and builds up a static charge. The more static electricity is charged, the brighter the orb on its tail glows._

 _This Mareep is male and knows the moves: Thundershock, Tackle, Thunder Wave, Agility and Cotton Spore. Its ability is Static, which causes attacking pokémon to have a chance of being paralysed in battle._

Ash nodded and closed the pokédex. Mareep didn't sound like much, but a good bit of training would make him an invaluable member on the team. Not to forget that he was already good friends with him.

"Hey, Mareep," Ash said suddenly as a thought sprung in his mind. "D'you want a name? Saur and Delphi do."

Mareep thought about it for a moment before he nodded. Ash went tough countless names – Storm, Lambda and Sparkle to name a few – but Mareep didn't seem to like any of them. Finally he thought of one that his mom had read to him as a kid. "Does Zeus sound good to you?"

Mareep thought about it for a few seconds before nodding in agreement. The newly-designated Zeus trotted over to him and nozzles against Ash's body, setting his hairs on end. Ash carefully petted Zeus, trying not to wince in surprise at the occasional light static shock he received. Ash didn't want to brag by naming his pokémon after a lightning god, but he was sure that his friend would live up to the na—

"Boo!"

Ash was _literally_ shocked out of his senses. Mareep had flinched at the sound and sent a powerful shock of electricity into his body. His everything-resistant shirt and jacket absorbed most of the electricity, but it wasn't that resistant to absorb everything and trails of energy passed into his body.

Ash yelped and fell to the ground as the shock made him spasm and jerk. Every muscle in his body twitched uncontrollably as he rolled on the ground. His eyes were bugged out as he continued to undergo the effects of the shock.

Across the fire, everybody was in hysterics. Natalie was rolling on the floor with laughter and Charmander was chuckling like his trainer. Zephyr was squawking in amusement while Buford was making loud, grunting noises, probably chuckling. Einstein was simply hovering in the air and watching the scene with his closed eyes.

Even Ash's own pokémon were busy laughing at their trainer. Saur was laughing so badly that he was lying on his back, while Delphi was chirping in amusement. Zeus was gurgling in laughter at Ash's movements.

The person who was laughing the hardest, however, was the prankster himself – Jack. He was clutching his sides in pain and his face was contorted in mirth. His laugh was probably more amusing than the joke itself.

Then suddenly there was a violent explosion that jarred everyone to their senses. Ash got up – his right eye was still twitching uncontrollably – and saw Diego the Pineco's unconscious form on a patch of blackened earth, wisps of smoke rising from him. Apparently he'd self-destructed out of mirth as he had been watching the scene, and the explosion had resulted in Natalie knocked to the ground with her hair in a mess. She rose from the ground like a demon, her face twisted in rage.

"I just got my hair done this morning!" she shrieked. "I'm going to _kill_ you!"

"Same here," Ash added, pushing himself up. "How about I hold him while you punch him?"

Natalie smirked. "Deal."

Their pokémon watched as the duo chased Jack around the warm, blazing fire, and it was late at night when they put out the fire and went off to sleep.

XxXxX

The next day followed the same routine: they battled trainers and wild pokémon, occasionally taking breaks due to exhaustion. The trainers they encountered seemed to be those who were going back to Viridian, so they had a tougher slew of pokémon on hand.

Jack had his fair share of battles, losing few, winning more, until he finally decided enough was enough. He gave his three pokémon time to rest and vowed to not get into a battle until they reached Pewter City, which was just a few miles away according to their town maps.

From that point on it was just Natalie and Ash and their pokémon. The girl had proved to be quite well against the experienced trainers and lost three of her eight battles. Ash kept winning with the aid of Zeus, Saur and Delphi, and lost only one match out of his total of six against a trainer who'd pulled out an Onix she'd captured at Mt Moon.

"What do you say we stop for some time?" Ash said. He sat down on the ground and drank some water, then poured some over Saur. The grass-type cooed in delight as the water trickled over his body.

Jack shrugged. "Okay. But let's not stop for long, 'cuz I wanna reach Pewter before nigh—"

"Hello. Would you there be trainers from Pallet Town by any chance?" a new voice asked suddenly.

Natalie frowned and looked around, trying to locate the speaker. "Um, yeah, but I don't see how that matters. Who is that, anyway?"

The voice laughed triumphantly. "At last, my search is over! HAI-YAH!"

The sound of two metals scraping against each other filled the air as a large, blue blur leapt out of a tree branch and soared towards them. The three of them screamed as they saw a long, shining blade held above the figure's head. Ash jumped away from his spot as the stranger slashed at him with raw ferocity. The blade cut through clean air and a few inches of it sank into the ground.

Jack looked utterly flabbergasted. "What the—"

The intruder was a kid clad in samurai gear, with a real blade held in his arms. The boy, who was barely as tall as Ash, was pointing his sword at each of them for every two seconds. His helmet was hanging lopsided on his head, but all that mattered to Ash was the blade pointed right between his eyes. "I am Samurai!" the stranger yelled. "I am an honourable trainer of these parts! I am — oomph!"

But Ash didn't get to know what else Samurai Boy was, as Saur slammed the boy in the midsection with one of his vines. The boy clutched his stomach painfully as Saur growled furiously and tripped the boy on his back. The grass-type type snatched the blade out of Samurai Boy's reach and stabbed it into the ground. Ash quickly called him off before he would really hurt the guy.

"Saur, stop! He's not hurting us!"

"What's wrong with your pokémon?!" Samurai Boy exclaimed furiously. "Control it before I call the authorities to put it down!"

"Are you serious?!" Natalie exclaimed angrily. "You pull a sword on us and you expect our pokémon to not attack? What kind of an _idiot_ are you?!"

The boy's face turned red and he motioned to grab his sword, but Saur slapped his hand away. Samurai Boy glared at the Bulbasaur in anger, but didn't say anything.

"As I was saying, I am Samurai!" the kid exclaimed in an authoritative voice – well, it would've been authoritative if his voice didn't crack so much. "I have been defeated by a trainer of Pallet! Now face me in battle so that I may redeem myself. Get ready!"

"I'll take this one." Ash walked over to face Samurai. "Get ready to get defeated."

The kid's face reddened in anger as he enlarged a pokeball. "Paras, defend my honour!"

Ash blinked when he saw the orange, insectoid creature appear on the ground. Like every other of its species, it had tochukaso, red-and-yellow parasitic mushrooms, on the back of its segmented body. It tapped its claws against the ground and cocked its head at its trainer.

Paras were normally found in caves, but if a forest had enough humidity for its survival, they could thrive in it. Since Viridian Forest didn't fit into either of the categories, Samurai Boy would've had to have gotten his Paras from Mt Moon. Kanto was a very dry region and had nothing like tropical/damp rainforests, unlike Hoenn or Alola. Instead, it was made up of two extremes: too hot and too cold.

Ash brought his attention back to the pokémon in front of him. He could think about Kanto another day. Right now he had to focus on his battle. He figured that the one who would do best against Paras would be Delphi, so he tapped the release button on her pokeball and sent her out.

"That little bird will be no match for my Paras!" Samurai exclaimed. "Paras, use Scratch!"

Paras skittered towards Delphi and Ash stifled a laugh at the pitiful event. "Delphi, Teleport."

The Natu immediately shimmered and vanished, and Paras struck at thin air. It looked confusedly at the spot where Delphi had been and clicked its claws together.

"Drill Peck," Ash ordered. "Wrap this up."

Delphi, who was on the other side of the field, leapt high up in the air and began corkscrewing towards Paras, her beak lengthening and glowing white. Paras shrieked when the Natu stabbed into its shelled back and slumped to the ground.

"Using super effective moves is a tactic unbecoming of a true warrior!" Samurai said, his face turning scarlet.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Ash said. He held his hand out and Samurai reluctantly gave out the prize money for winning.

Samurai recalled his defeated Paras and took out another pokeball. "You will not be able to defeat my next fighter!" he commented. "Get ready!"

"This one is mine," Natalie said, taking Ash's place. "You can't have all the fun!"

Ash grinned and let her battle Samurai's next pokémon. Meanwhile, Jack was fooling around with the kid's katana and calling himself 'Samurai Jack'.

"Pinsir, to me!" Samurai said fancily. A large, bipedal insect burst forth from the ball and clicked the pincers on top of its head menacingly. Natalie simply smirked and sent out Charmander, who bared his fangs and flashed his claws at Pinsir. Samurai paled for a moment, but didn't allow the type disadvantage to deter him.

"Pinsir, begin!" the kid called out. "Use Earthquake!"

The trio's eyes widened as Pinsir's pincers glowed faintly, charging up energy in them. It seemed like Samurai Boy had beefed up his pokémon on TMs.

"Jump exactly before Pinsir hits the ground, Charmander!" Natalie ordered. While Pinsir didn't seem very powerful enough to let loose a full-powered Earthquake – the amount of time it was taking to charge up the required energy showed that – the move could still inflict devastating damage on Charmander, being a fire-type.

Charmander jumped up just before Pinsir slammed its pincers into the ground, causing a small earthquake to erupt around the field that sent all four trainers falling on their butts. The Earthquake caused a few trees around the clearing to uproot and fall on the ground with loud thuds.

"Ember!" Natalie shouted. Charmander, who had easily avoided the weak tremor that Pinsir had caused, hissed furiously at Pinsir as the flame on his tail rose to an immense size. He quickly spun around and swished his tail, causing a small stream of fire to fly at Pinsir from his tail flame. The fire splashed against the armoured carapace's torso and made it screech in pain.

Pinsir was struggling to stay upright and Natalie was smirking. "Charmander, end this. Em—" But her voice was drowned out by a loud buzzing that seemed to come from above. Ash looked at Jack in puzzlement, but within seconds his confusion was replaced with fear that crawled through his entire body within seconds. The strange buzzing noise was obvious, and Ash dreaded to look up.

There was a swarm of Beedrill right there.

About fifty Beedrill were flying towards them, with huge, poisonous lances resting on either arm. The tips were leaking clear, potent poison and Ash was pretty sure that they weren't doing that to make juice.

Their red, compound eyes gleamed menacingly and a gigantic stinger rested on the bottom of the thorax. It, too, was dripping clear poison, lethal enough to kill all of them within seconds.

Then Samurai Boy voiced what all of them were thinking.

" _RUN_!"

The second he uttered those words, the four of them quickly recalled their pokémon and bolted away from the scene, with Samurai ahead of them. It was really strange to see someone with such heavy armour on him move so fast, but Ash didn't rely care about that right now. All he cared about was getting away from the swarm of Beedrill that was chasing them relentlessly.

"FOLLOW ME!" he heard Samurai yell. "I know a rest house not to far from here! They have rangers and stuff!"

Ash didn't really trust this guy, but right now anything other than being stabbed by killer Beedrill sounded good to him. He took a few twists and turns, and was doing a great job at running away from the Beedrill – until he tripped over a tree root and tumbled on the ground.

Ash gasped as pain shot up his ankle and his breathing turned ragged and harsh. He'd twisted his ankle probably, which wasn't good thing while running away from pokémon with murderous intent. The others turned back in panic and stared at Ash, hesitating to run further.

"Go!" he managed to shout, gritting his teeth in pain as he cradled his ankle. "I'll be fine." The words sounded hollow in his mouth.

"Like he'll you will!" Natalie yelled angrily. "Zephyr, Charmander, go! Protect Ash! Attack those Beedrill."

Charmander roared furiously and rushed at Ash on all fours while Zephyr flew at the Beedrill at lightning speed. He beat his small, powerful wings and brewed a gale of wind that knocked down few Beedrill out of the swarm of twenty or thirty.

Charmander was firing embers so quickly that he looked like Delphi while she was attempting Drill Peck. He managed to down several Beedrill, but it seemed like every time one fell another took its place. Eventually he and Zephyr would tire out, which would leave them at the mercy of the Beedrill.

Ash sent out his own pokémon, ignoring the pain in his ankle. Saur, Delphi and Zeus quickly registered their surrounding and glared at the Beedrill, and Ash didn't have to tell them to attack. They launched themselves at the Beedrill with righteous fury.

The Beedrill were fighting to kill – for whatever unknown reason – so Saur, Zephyr, Charmander, Delphi and Zeus weren't going to hold back. Saur whipped a Beedrill so badly that he tore off its wing in the process; Delphi easily Drill Pecked through a Beedrill's thorax; and Charmander was slashing at them so many times that after some time his claws were covered with bug blood, which glistened green on his metallic claws.

One Beedrill, however, managed to make it through the wall of pokémon and scratched Ash on the knee with its stinger.

It was a tiny cut, but Ash's leg exploded in pain. The knee hurt the worst, but it still felt like his entire leg was set on fire. Ash was grasping at his knee and was gritting his teeth so badly that he was afraid that they would crack, but he didn't care. All that mattered was the pain.

Finally Samurai saved the day. He released his Pinsir and ordered it to use Hyper Beam. Orange particles of raw energy started collecting in the stag beetle pokémon's mouth. About twenty seconds later the Hyper Beam burst from Pinsir's gaping maw and ripped through the air, cleanly hitting all of the remaining Beedrill. Ninety percent of them fell to the ground, unconscious, although two were still hovering in the air, but barely.

The two Beedrill seemed to be the smart ones of the group, because they immediately flew away from the group. Zephyr went to chase them, but Natalie called her down.

"Ash!" she called out, running to him. "What – oh, Arceus."

The cut was the smallest thing possible, but growing around it was a yellowish-green rash that was incredibly unsightly. The only thing more disgusting were the five Beedrill corpses decorating the forest floor, which were the works of their own pokémon.

No matter how evil pokémon were, Ash objected against them being killed. They were people just like humans, not dumb animals. Even now Ash felt remorse for the dead Beedrill, and he managed to force the bile back down as he stared at the yellow-and-black carapaces, their severed wings and their green guts spilled on the ground...

"Here." Ash looked up and saw Samurai holding out an antidote to Jack, who snatched I and quickly sprayed its contents on Ash's cut. It stung as the liquid was sprayed over the cut, although the poison stopped working its effects on Ash, but it was still itching like crazy. Not to mention his twisted ankle was throbbing in pain, too.

"His ankles still broken. We need to take him to the outpost," he heard Samurai say. "It's not too far from here."

Natalie, Jack and Ash nodded. Jack and Samurai lifted the boy up from the ground and recalled his pokémon before clipping the pokeballs to his belt. It was a long time before the disgusting odour of the Beedrill corpses left his senses.

XxXxX

"There. You're all set," the ranger said. As soon as they'd burst into the cabin – which was meant as a stop to heal up pokémon and was conveniently placed just fifteen minutes away from the other gate of Viridian Forest – the three rangers inside had quickly assessed the situation as a Beedrill attack and the healer had quickly got to work. Apparently several deaths had been caused due to trainers stumbling across the Beedrill nest of the forest, so the ranger corps had set up a minor base here.

It had taken around twenty minutes for the healer ranger to extract most of the poison from Ash's system, but the process was helped since Jack had healed it with the antidote. Then, the ranger had proceeded to mend Ash's broken ankle, but that had hardly taken any time since her Bayleef had simply used Heal Pulse to heal the wound.

While Ash was done being healed up, the rangers went to heal their tired and exhausted pokémon. It had taken half an hour and in that time Jack had challenged the head ranger to a match of chess, in which the ranger had won with ease. Then the other two rangers had come out with the pokémon healed and already cooped up inside their pokeballs.

"Stay safe!" a ranger called out as they opened the door to head to Pewter. "Don't forget that the immunizations will take some time to completely remove the poison from your system, so don't exert yourself. Take it easy, and you'll reach Pewter in an hour or two."

"Okay." Ash dipped his head in respect. "Thanks for your help!"

"Bye!" Jack called out as all of them waved at the rangers. "You play chess really well, though!"

Natalie playfully smacked him on the back of his head while Samurai chuckled. They finally turned away after a minute, and it wasn't long before they reached the gate that led to Pewter City.

"I guess this is it," Samurai said. "Just go straight and you'll reach Pewter City in an hour."

"Thank you for your help, Samurai," Natalie said, before adding in an undertone, "although you brought a pack of Beedrill on us with your Pinsir..."

"If you ever come back to these parts, don't forget to meet me." Samurai grinned at them. "Hopefully I'll be strong enough to beat you guys then!"

Ash smirked. "I'm looking forward to it."

With that, the trio waved Samurai goodbye, and the kid walked back into the forest, his sword sheathed. Ash wondered whether another trainer would face the same greeting as he had from the kid.

Saur tapped his shoulder with a vine and motioned for him to get moving. They could see Pewter City in the distance as the sun rose high in the afternoon sky. They were all tired from the day's events, and even the female ranger back in the forest had told him not to exert himself.

He would challenge Brock tomorrow, when he and his friends would be refreshed. Right now, all he could think was off the Pokémon Centre's delicious food and the warm, comfy bed that awaited him.

XxXxX

 **That's all for chapter two. I hope you liked it, so tell me how you guys thought about it! Constructive criticism is welcome. (Yeah. I'm just saying that so that I'ma get more reviews. #EveryFfnAuthorEvaa**

 **Ahem...Anyway...**

 **I was about to give Ash a Pikachu, but then I though of something more original... Mareep. I bet this is the first Ash-Rewrite fic where he's got a Mareep, but I can say for sure. There are about a gazillion fics and I don't want to waste my time reading them.**

 **Plus, while it may not look intimidating, Ampharos' wide electric move pool makes it a truly dangerous force, and it can also learn Dragon Pulse – which should be devastating after the STAB boost it gets after mega evolving into SSJ3 – I mean, Mega Ampharos. Mega Evolution significantly boosts this creature's special attack stat and adds on the dragon-typing, so don't mess with the hair (Sorry for the jokes, Ampharos).**

 **The nickname: I was originally going to name him Apollo, cuz Ampharos' tail shines so brightly it can be seen in outer space, but Apollo is more the god of archery and medicine than the god of light and sun (which should rightly be Helios' title), so I changed to Zeus. Like I mentioned in the chapter, Ash will train his Mareep to be the strongest electric type there is – a force to be reckoned with.**

 **I hope you guys liked the Beedrill scene! I wanted to show how battles can be fatal – this story is going to be more realistic, so there will be pokémon deaths and blood – kinda like how Traveller has it. Of course, it won't be overly done, or else I wouldn't have rated it T.**

 **Next chapter will have the battle against Brock and Mt Moon – with a few surprises! Here are the review responses for chapter one:**

 **Rockingchampif: Hey great start there...so ash has a brother who is a champion that would be awesome to have a battle with the champion before the leagues after he collects all gym badges...** **Bulbasaur was a different choice since everybody who is writing there version of ash in stories ...great start and loved the chapter i have always liked Stories with TM's on them...hope you provide the training method and a little training methods employed by ash that would be great...but for now i loved the first chapter it was great...**

 _-Thank you! I'm glad you liked it! I hope the training scenes in this chapter satisfied you. Don't worry, as the story goes on the training scenes will have much more detail and will be much more complex. And I'm happy you liked the inclusion of TMs! I was pretty bummed when the anime didn't include TMs at all, and since several fits do have TMs it seemed like a great idea to me._

 **Generalhyna: Potentially awsome...can my oc also appear in this**

- _Thank you for your kinds words, although I don't know about the OC... I've pretty much planned out everything :)_

 **Greasy Monkey: Seems like a start to a good fic. I read a few chapters of the Nomad, and I have to say that this is much better than that. Imma stick around for some more of this.** **A few questions: Will there be more rivals? Will trainers make early bird appearances? Will there be more exotic/international pokémon? Will there be megas and Blast Burn/Frenzy Plant/Hydro Canon? Anyway, keep up the good work! Update quickly!**

 _-Thanks! I'm glad that this seems better than the Nomad. I hope you stick around for longer, though :)_ _Now to your questions: More rivals? Yes there will! I've already made Misty one of Ash's rivals, but there will be many more to come. Will trainers make early bird appearances? Yes – I've made plans to include several of them, including a certain someone from Sinnoh (wink, wink). Will there be international pokémon? Ash himself will be catching several pokémon from outside Kanto/Johto, so that's a yes too. And Blast Burn/Frenzy Plant/Hydro Canon is a humongous YES! And you also got your wish!_

 **Ashloveleaf: So... No leaf?**

 _-Leaf is in this story, but she started her journey with Blue and Red._

 **PraetorFable: Great start! I'll be looking forward for more!**

 _-Thanks a lot! I'm happy you liked it._

 **MechaRex 2.0: Oh man! This was really interesting. A Bulbasaur is a unique choice for Ash's starter because mostly people go for froakie or Charmander, etc. Natu was also an interesting choice. Will she be Ash's only psychic type in Kanto?** **I also hit a few hindrances, though. What's the intranet? I mean, someone wouldn't just capitalise three letters in the middle of the word for nothing. Also, is there a reason as to why Red is so strong? I wouldn't expect any trainer, no matter how much time he spent training a day, to end up as a true champion after just one year of training.** **Anyway, that's it for now. This may become a really good story, like Traveler, which is like one of the best out there. Please update soon!**

 _-I can't keep finding different ways to thank people, but thanks a lot! Bulbasaur is my favourite Kanto starter, which is why I chose him. As for Delphi being Ash's only psychic pokémon in Kanto, yes she will, although Ash might get another one in Johto or Hoenn._ _The InTraNet stands for the International Trainer Network, which is basically like the Facebook, although it's only for trainers. People can set up conversations, stuff like that, and you can even put up a pokémon for the GTS, although you still need to get to a Centre to make the trade. I hope this covers it._ _As for Red getting so strong, there will be a chapter where this is unveiled, although after Ash gets all eight badges. I hope you stick around for that long to find out!_

 **That's all for this chapter. Thanks for all the support, and I'll see you guys next chapter.**


	3. Rockslides Keep Fallin' On My Head

**Holy crap.**

 **I just wanted Ash and Co to get through Mt Moon, but then _this_ happened.**

 **Two of my best friends, college and writer's block, hung with me for a week! I only managed to get this chapter done was because I read Enid Blyton's _The Mystery_ series (no, I'm not joking). That gave me _a lot of ideas_ and I finally got it done!**

 **In any case, this is the longest chapter I've written for any of my stories – it's 18,000 words long – so I'm quite happy with it, even though producing something this big isn't my cup of tea, but enough of me jabbering. RR!**

XxXxX

 _Chapter Three: Rockslides Keep Fallin' On My Head_

Ash stared at the large and imposing gym in front of him. It had thick slabs of stone surrounding it, although it covered only the front. The rest was a large building with a purple rooftop.

They'd woken at the crack of dawn, because the three of them had decided to have their battles that very day. Ash was too excited to even touch his food and decided to skip breakfast and treat himself and his family if – no, _when_ he would win.

"So, who wants to battle Brock first?" Natalie asked. "I want this over with as soon as possible."

There was silence between them, for none of them were willing to let each other go first, until Jack meekly raised his hand. "Uh, actually, Einstein's going to sleep in some time, so I was wondering if I could go first. I don't wanna go against Brock with only Buford, even if he is a fighting-type."

"Well, what about Diego?" Natalie smirked. "You'll still have two pokémon on your team even if Einstein is fast asleep."

Jack glared at the girl. "Don't be stupid. Diego's a _bug-type_! He'll be knocked out in a second."

"Alright, fine." Ash sighed. "Jack can go first. I'm not letting you go next, though," Ash added, wagging a finger at Natalie. "How do we settle this?"

Natalie and Ash frowned for several minutes, but finally the former came up with a solution.

"Stone-paper-scissors."

Both of them agreed it was fair, and the two decided to decide the winner out of three games. Natalie ended up winning the most, so she would be the one to battle Brock after Jack. Ash didn't mind as long as he battled Brock today. He just wanted to be done with it.

The three of them together got the heavy door to open, and they walked inside the Gym. It was quite dark and cool, and the only thing lighting their way were torches lined along the walls. A long hallway led the three to the main area.

The battlefield was huge and littered with jagged rocks, boulders and spires of stone that jutted out of the rocky field. There were balconies far above the ground, possibly allow spectators to view ongoing gym battles.

A tall, chocolate-skinned teenager sat on a smooth pedestal at the other end of the large room. He was conversing with a boy – perhaps a year younger than Ash – who looked just like the older one and a much older, fair-skinned woman with red hair.

Brock – Ash assumed that the older boy was Brock – looked up as the trio's footsteps became louder. The other two around Brock also looked up and turned their previously deadpanned expressions into smiles.

"Welcome to the Pewter City Gym," the teen said. "I'm Brock, Gym Leader—" his face twisted into a momentary scowl as he said that—"of this Gym. I assume you're here for gym battles?"

Natalie nodded. "That's right."

"Ah…" The teen grimaced. "Well, I'm sorry to say that I won't be able to accept all of your challenges right now. I have been asked to give a talk at the Pewter Museum of Science, so I'll be busy from eleven-thirty to four o'clock. I can take only one challenge right now," Brock finished, sounding genuinely sorry.

Ash's heart sank at that. From what Brock was saying, he'd have to wait till tomorrow to have his battle, but a question sprung in his mind. "Um, you will be free later in the evening though, right?"

Brock grinned. "Sure. You can come and challenge me once I'm back at the gym."

Ash grinned. With all the free time he had before his gym battle, he could train his friends a bit more before the challenge. Right now, though, he decided to let his friends watch Jack's battle.

Ash and Natalie made themselves comfortable in one of the balconies while Brock and Jack took their positions on the battlefield. The little kid who resembled Brock walked to the halfway position of the battlefield and shouted:

"This battle is between Challenger Jack Fernández and Leader Brock of Pewter for Mastery!" For such a young kid, Ash had to admit that he had an impressive voice. "Each side will use two pokémon. Incapacitate Leader Brock's pokémon, and Challenger Fernández bears our badge. Trainers, send out your pokémon!"

Ash could hear Jack all the way up. "Einstein, let's go!"

The pokeball snapped open and the familiar form of Jack's Abra burst out of the pokeball, whirring as he levitated himself into the air. Ash was worried that Einstein was fast asleep when he saw the creature's head bob against his chest, but sighed in relief when Einstein waved his hands and emanated a small psychic wave.

Brock seemed to take offense to a pokémon whose eyes were as closed as his own, because he released a Rhyhorn with a surly expression on his face. The beast snorted dust out of its nostrils as it eyed Abra and stomped its forelegs at the ground, causing the field to rumble. Ash noticed Jack gulping, but the boy didn't seem particularly threatened.

The referee slashed his hand down. "Begin!"

"Light Screen!" Jack ordered quickly. The Abra nodded and waved his arms, forming a translucent, circular shield that glimmered in the gym's light. It pulsed for a few seconds before turning invisible.

"Horn Attack," Brock said calmly.

Rhyhorn grunted and immediately charged at Einstein with a glowing horn, but Einstein easily teleported away. The Rhyhorn abruptly came to a halt and looked around dumbly for its opponent, and Jack took his chance.

"Energy Ball!"

Einstein generated the grass-type move in an instant and fired it at Rhyhorn just as the heavily-armored creature turned in the Abra's direction. The second the Energy Ball touched Rhyhorn resulted in a violent explosion. The spikes pokémon was hurled back several feet, and although there was no visible damage it was breathing heavily due to being hurt from the grass-type move.

"Rock Polish!" Brock commanded. "Follow up with Fury Horn."

Rhyhorn suddenly glowed, blinding everyone for a moment. When the light faded, Rhyhorn was charging at Einstein with speed that no creature its size could possess. Rhyhorn's horn, now glowing, slammed into Einstein, who was too surprised to teleport away from the Horn Attack, and Rhyhorn took advantage of the Abra's surprise by continuously drilling it with its horn. Finally Einstein vanished, causing Rhyhorn to strike air, but the damage was done.

Einstein appeared on Jack's side of the field, wobbling as he struggled to remain conscious and in the air after the onslaught of attacks. Rhyhorn roared furiously and pawed the ground, lowering its horn at the Abra.

"Teleport and then Energy Ball!" Jack yelled. "Knock it out!"

Brock smirked. "Rhyhorn, Rock Polish."

Rhyhorn glowed once again, but grunted as sphere of green energy exploded against his side once the glow died down, but the pokémon whipped around with shocking speed and rushed Einstein with its entire body. Einstein fired a few more Energy Balls that hit their target and slowed it down, but Rhyhorn was still too fast for him to teleport from the Horn Attack. The horn slammed into his abdomen and Einstein slumped the ground, out cold.

Rhyhorn snarled, but a moment later its eyes bugged out and its knees shook, falling down a few seconds later as it fainted. Apparently five Energy Balls were too much for it, but it still managed to take down Einstein with it.

Both trainers silently recalled their pokémon, although Jack looked angry at his loss. He didn't even say anything as he sent out Buford, who leapt a few times and screamed madly for an opponent.

"Geodude, rock and roll!" Brock hurled the pokeball up and it released its contents seconds later. The rock type was little more than a spherical with two strong arms. It opened its rocky made a strange, harsh sound, like boulders scraping against each other.

The kid who was acting as the referee slashed his hand down. "Begin!"

"Geodude, Rock Throw!" Brock said.

Geodude's arms punched a stone pillar on the field, crushing it into small rocks that littered the floor in front of it, and the living rock

"Karate Chop, Buford!" Jack called out. "Destroy all the rocks!"

Buford screamed and lashed out at the speeding rocks and obliterated them in a matter of minutes. The Mankey brought his right hand down on the rock pokémon before it could get far; the force was enough to send it flying away and crashing into a spire, but Geodude quickly pushed himself up with his strong arms.

"Impressive, but I'm afraid it's not enough to take out Geodude!" Brock cried. "Mega Punch!" Geodude launched itself at Buford, its left fist glowing a dazzling white. Ash knew that a direct hit would hurt the Mankey pretty bad, even though it was a normal-type move, so he was hoping that Buford would dodge it in time.

"Low Kick!" Jack bellowed. "Then grab it and use Seismic Toss!"

It wasn't a 'Low' Kick, per se – Buford's leg shone white before he high-kicked Geodude right in the face, causing it to groan in pain as a strident crack echoed in the gym. Before Geodude could get away, however, Buford took hold of it and leapt into the air, flipping so many times mid-air that Ash would've thought it to be impossible if it weren't for the existence of pokémon, until he let go of Geodude, who smashed into the ground.

The very ground beneath Geodude cracked, forming a small crater due to the force, which sent rocks flying and kicked up dust around Buford and Geodude. Brock simply sighed and recalled Geodude, who was clearly unconscious from the powerful attack.

Brock walked up to Jack and handed over the Boulder Badge as a sign of his victory. Ash and Natalie ran down to the field to congratulate their friend, and Brock was ready to leave anyway.

"I'm sorry, but I really have to leave now," Brock told the three. They bowed at each other before the four of them exited the gym, although Brock did that at a much faster pace.

"That was really cool!" Natalie exclaimed as they walked towards the Pokémon Centre. "You were really good, Jack!"

"Nah, it was Buford and Einstein who did all the work," Jack corrected. "I just gave them commands, y'know." He squealed in excitement and jumped a few times. "I can't believe it!" he exclaimed. "I'ma win the Indigo League!"

"Yeah, yeah." Ash rolled his eyes. "Anyway, what do we do now? We've still got a few hours left before we get to challenge Brock."

"I was planning to hit the museum," Natalie suggested. "Kill some time. Plus, we can keep a tab on Brock too; make sure that no one else gets to battle him before us," she added, grinning.

Ash grinned back, although uneasily. In truth he wanted to train his pokémon – Saur in particular – for his gym battle, but he also didn't want to be away from his friends. Ash had hoped that at least Natalie would be with him, since she only had a Charmander and a Shroomish that would prove vital in her battle against Brock.

In the end he finally made his decision. "I actually want to train for some time before Brock's battle," Ash told them as he nervously scratched the back of his neck. "You guys go on ahead. I'll catch you later."

Natalie bit her lower lip as she considered what Ash was saying before she and Jack bid him goodbye – well, primarily Natalie, since Jack was still euphoric over his victory against Brock – and sped towards the main path, leaving Ash alone in front of the Pokémon Centre.

Ash took a step towards the Centre, and the doors slid open – but then Jack's voice pierced his thoughts.

"Wait! I forgot to heal my pokémon!"

XxXxX

Ash quickly made his way to the training field behind the Pokémon Centre. Although he was bummed about the fact that Pewter City didn't hold a Battle Club, he'd figured that the training field was better than nothing. He'd had a 'quick' brunch so that he wouldn't feel hungry during his training session, and forty-five minutes he was on the field.

He took off the three pokeballs on his belt and released his family. A Bulbasaur, Natu and Mareep greeted him with growls, chirps and bleats after they took in their surroundings.

"Okay, guys, we're about to have our gym battle today!" he told them. Saur's eyes gleamed and he grinned, while Delphi chirped in acknowledgement and Zeus nodded. "It'll happen in a few hours time, but right now let's train!"

The three pokémon agreed immediately and set to work. Natu went over to one side, trying to learn how to fly. Her wings had grown big enough that she could even flap them, so the little Natu and Ash had decided to focus on flying – at least a bit. It would be pretty humiliating if she couldn't fly properly even after evolving into a Xatu.

Saur was going to practice all of his grass-type moves. He was going to be Ash's best bet during the gym battle. Delphi would be knocked out with one single hit, and Zeus' Thundershocks would do next to nothing.

But Saur would win. He would not fail his trainer.

While Saur did his best to destroy each and every rock in the field, Ash moved on to Zeus. The Mareep was busy chewing grass, but stopped immediately when he saw Ash coming towards him.

He'd never actually gotten a chance to see Zeus in a real battle, mainly because the Mareep had already been hurt in the forest and Ash hadn't wanted to tire him even further. Ash hadn't gotten time to check out all of Zeus' moves, so he decided to check them all now.

"Alright, Tackle is pretty much inherent," Ash said, "so you don't have to show me those. Let's see Thundershock, Thunder Wave and Cotton Spore.

"Thundershock first," he ordered. Ash pointed at a tree. "Full Power."

Zeus nodded, and Ash took a few steps away to be safe from stray bolts. With a blank face, Zeus stared at the tree with all his concentration and then his horns sparked with electricity, then flowing over his entire body. A split-second later a thick bolt of electricity exploded from the Mareep and sped to the tree at a frightening rate before it hit the tree's center, scorching the spot and sending splinters flying from it as the Thundershock created a deep depression.

"Great!" Ash grinned at his friend. "I really don't want to be at the receiving end of any of your attacks, Zeus."

Zeus bleated in content at his trainer's remark.

"Now let's check your accuracy." Ash got up from his spot and snapped his fingers, finally getting a idea to use something as targets. "Zeus, bring down that apple I'm pointing at. The farthest one."

The fruit which Ash had been pointing at was at least a hundred feet away, hanging loosely on the farthest tree in the field, but the distance didn't deter Zeus. He bleated fiercely before firing another bolt of electricity that accurately fried the apple and blasted it from the branch it was hanging from; the piece of fruit flew several feet away before plummeting down and bouncing off the ground.

"Damn…" Ash nodded, slightly impressed, before another idea struck him. "Hold on, let's the something else."

Ten seconds later, Ash returned with three apples he'd brought down from the tree with the help of Saur and his tentacles. "Okay… Look, I'm going to throw these as fast and as high as possible. Hit them all before they hit the ground."

Zeus nodded in a form of understanding before he looked determinedly at the sky. Ash tossed them into the air as far as possible, trying to defeat Zeus, but in vain. The electric-type shot them all with ease, pinning them before they'd reached their maximum height, and although his missed the last piece of fruit he snagged it a second before it hit the ground. The distinct smell of roasted fruit filled Ash's nostrils.

Ash whistled, this time absolutely impressed. "That was some pretty good shooting, Zeus." Zeus simply snorted in return.

Ash checked Zeus' data again. He skipped the extended entry, not wanting to know how long it took for a Mareep to regain its wool after shedding, and stopped at the list of potential moves that the species could learn. He pondered a bit over the part about a Mareep's evolution process; now that he thought about it, Zeus' coat of wool seemed lesser than the average of its species…

He jarred himself out of his thoughts. He could think about that another time. Right now he had to work on getting Zeus stronger.

"Okay, bud," he muttered. "Let's try learning Wild Charge."

Wild Charge was a move that required the user to charge a cloak of electricity around their body, then recklessly ram into their opponent. Although it was similar to Volt Tackle – arguably the strongest electric-type attack there was – the two were very different. For one, Wild Charge relied on sheer power, while Volt Tackle relied mainly on speed. And, sadly, Volt Tackle could be learnt only by the Pichu line.

Wild Charge was essentially a Take Down with electrical attributes, and with an Ampharos' superior mass Ash was sure that Zeus could hone it into a deadly weapon.

The only problem: how could Zeus learn at least a makeshift version of it?

Ash snapped his fingers for Zeus' attention. "Zeus, use Thundershock. Only this time, don't release it."

The Mareep looked at Ash in puzzlement for a few seconds before realization dawned across his blue face. Zeus nodded and grunted and focused his attention on the task.

The horns on either side of his head sparked to life before it spread over his cute, fluffy body. Ash grinned as the yellow electricity cracked and sparked around his wool, but Zeus managed to hold it only for a bit over ten seconds. A little residual electricity crackled over his wool, but a few hesitant pats by Ash was enough to make sure that it was safe to be near the creature.

"Okay, that was good, but not good enough." Zeus glared at his trainer. "Let's try again, buddy. Try to hold it for a minute."

Zeus glared and the ground and bleated out in frustration. He manifested electrical energy around his body in another attempt while his friend and trainer watched.

XxXxX

Ash made his way towards Saur, who was scowling in concentration as the Energy Ball in front of him grew to an immense size. Zeus had managed to keep the electricity around him for a little while longer, but Wild Charge was far from complete. They were still in the beginning stage.

Finally Saur couldn't hold it back any more and he sent the green orb of solar energy hurtling towards the rock. He saw Delphi flinch and Zeus lose his focus as there was a great bang when the Energy Ball exploded against the tree. A good chunk of the rock Saur was practicing on was destroyed and the Bulbasaur looked pretty happy about it.

"Great work, Saur." Trainer and pokémon both matched toothy grins at the statement. "Your attacks are darn good, and so is your Poison Powder. But…"

Ash scanned the Bulbasaur in front of him. Saur grit his teeth in frustration once again, but Ash didn't take it as anything serious. Pokémon tended to get more aggressive as they neared evolution due to 'evolution pains', as the Pewter City Nurse Joy had so kindly told him. Joy had giving Saur a tonic which would ease his pains, so it looked like the medicine was wearing off.

He shifted his thoughts back to Saur. According to the pokédex, his vitals seemed normal – better than average, by the looks of it. He now had quite a good move pool: Tackle, Vine Whip (Ash categorized Power Whip as a makeshift version since it still wasn't mastered), Poison/Sleep Powder and Energy Ball. His egg moves – moves which were mysteriously obtained by a pokémon by their parents in their embryonic stage – were Power Whip, Leaf Storm, Magical Leaf and Grassy Terrain. Ash needed to look in on them once Saur would evolve.

No, Saur's true potential lay in his ability. Ninety-six percent of the Bulbasaur population had the Overgrow ability, which would power up grass-type moves when the pokémon in question was near exhaustion, Saur had the _exceedingly_ rare ability called 'Chlorophyll'. Chlorophyll used the light from the sun to create organic hormones that would significantly boost the carrier's speed, which was why Saur was so agile in the wild. It was a great ability for a Bulbasaur, since Venusaur, their final form, weren't known for being quick.

"Alright…" Ash muttered. "Saur, try activating Chlorophyll. It's noon right now, so it should be pretty good."

Saur nodded and closed his eyes. His bulb glowed white as he absorbed light from the sun to trigger Chlorophyll, producing the agility-hormones at such a fast rate that it gave him an adrenaline rush. The entire tire process took about three seconds.

Power surged through his body as his legs were pumped with the chemicals, and Saur took off as a blur.

Ash was slack-jawed as he saw Saur round the field three times with ease, and when he was done he wasn't even out of breath. If this was what Saur was when he absorbed normal sunlight, Ash couldn't wait to see how fast he was under the effects of Sunny Day. He couldn't wait to hit the famous Celadon Departmental Store and snag that TM from the cashiers.

Ash grinned even wider than before. "Saur, that was great!"

Saur snorted in response. He was born to surprise people.

"Take a break, buddy," Ash said as he petted his friend. "The next time I let you out, you'll be up against Brock."

Saur only grinned.

XxXxX

"…and then, he told us about the Cinnabar Island Pokémon Lab, where they can, like, _resurrect_ fossil pokémon!" Natalie exclaimed in awe as she stabbed another piece of sausage. "I mean, yeah, you'll have to pay a shit load of cash to get a fossil pokémon back to life, but it's still pretty cool, right?"

Ash, Natalie and Jack were currently walking towards the Pewter Gym. Jack and Natalie had returned from the museum a little over half an hour ago, and the two couldn't stop talking about the session Brock had about fossil research in Kanto. Jack had been quiet for quite some time, but Natalie was yammering non-stop about the technology and displays at the museum.

"Ash, you really should've come with us," Natalie told the dark-haired boy for the nth time. "At the end of the seminar, he and his dad even showed us a _real_ Kabuto and Omanyte that were kept in the aquariums!"

Ash's eyes widened considerably at that. "Really?!"

"Mhmm." Natalie nodded smugly. "They were really cool. That Omanyte was really scared of everything, but Kabuto was really friendly! Apparently they belong to Brock and he's gonna be training them to be part of his league registered team."

Ash nodded thoughtfully at that. It would be fun to battle a pokémon which was once extinct. His mother would've paid almost anything to even see them, if she was still an apprentice under Oak and not a single mother with two kids.

Ash gritted his teeth angrily at the thought of his deadbeat father. Apparently he was still training to be a master, or whatever bullshit his mom told him whenever he asked about him. The last time he'd seen the man was eight years ago, when Red had begun his journey as a trainer.

He wasn't there when _Ash_ had started on his journey…

Ash shook his head angrily. There was no point thinking about someone he'd last seen only eight years ago. He, his mother and Red had managed to live without his presence.

Finally the structure of the Pewter Gym was enough to stop thinking about his father. He was feeling more excited than nervous. He knew that he would bag a victory before he'd leave the building.

If he wouldn't, he would tear down the building brick by brick.

Brock was standing exactly where he'd been standing when they'd first entered the gym, although now he was with an older man who looked exactly like him, save for the grey hair and the few wrinkles on his face. Jack told Ash that the older man – Flint – was his father and Ash mouthed an 'oh' as he digested this piece of information.

Brock nodded and smiled as they approached him. "Ah, you've come. I hope you're… Uh, have you brought someone with you?"

The trio turned around and saw a boy their age walk towards Brock. He had thick, purple hair that reached to the base of his neck and pitch-black eyes. He had a permanent scowl on his face, an expression that didn't suit anyone so young.

The boy shook his head. "No, I'm not with them, although I too have come for a gym battle." His voice was deep for a ten-year-old.

"Alright, but you'll have to wait for your turn." The boy nodded and walked to the seats without saying anything.

"Okay," Brock said, smiling at the trio. "Who's first?"

"I'm up." Natalie stepped forward. Brock nodded and motioned for her to walk to her trainer box.

Ash a Jack wished her luck before making their way to the stands to watch the match. Natalie and Brick released their pokémon – Charmander and Geodude respectively – before Flint slashed his hand down, commencing the match.

XxXxX

Natalie returned to the stands twenty minutes later, wiping away the last of her tears. Her match against Brock had gone fairly well in the beginning, with Charmander knocking out Geodude after several Metal Claws, but it had gone horribly wrong once Brock sent out a little, steel-armored creature he called Aron. It was clear that it was a steel-type when it had easily shrugged off an avalanche of Metal Claws and knocked out an already-tired Charmander by a Dig. Natalie hastily sent out her Shroomish, but Aron had easily tanked several Mega Drains before knocking out the grass-type, too.

"C'mon, Natalie," Ash consoled. "It's okay. Charmander battled really hard and if it weren't for that blasted Aron he would've easily won."

"I-I'm a h-h-horrible trainer," Natalie sobbed. "I should've never started on a j-journey. I—"

"Don't say that," Jack warned. "You're a really good trainer and nobody's gonna say otherwise. Or else…" He glared at Ash.

"I wasn't going to say anything!" Ash said angrily.

Natalie wiped her eyes once again. "Do me a favor, Ash."

"Anything," the boy agreed.

"Kick Brock's ass for me."

Ash grinned. "You watch."

When Ash had reached the field, Brock already had a pokeball out. "Same rules as the previous matches. Do you agree?" Ash nodded.

"Trainers, release your pokémon!" Flint declared.

Ash detached a pokeball from his belt and released the capture within. "It's all up to you, buddy," Ash whispered as Saur materialized in front of his eyes.

"I got this from Olivia when I met her in Alola," Brock told the younger trainer with a dreamy smile. "Rockruff, go!"

Rockruff was a quadruped, canine with brown fur and a darker muzzle. It had intelligent, blue eyes and a ruff of grayish-white fur stubbed with dark-brown pebbles collared it. It bared it fangs as it growled at Saur, who returned the gesture in same.

"If you must know, it's a rock-type," Brock informed him. "It's basically like a rock-type Growlithe. They're really good pets."

Rockruff yipped at its trainers statement, and Saur continued to leer at it.

"Interesting," Ash admitted, "but let's not keep the battle waiting."

Brock grinned. "Dad, commence the match!"

Flint slashed his hand down.

The battle began.

"Fire Fang!" Brock yelled. Rockruff barked, flames flickering to life in his maw as he rushed at Saur.

"Energy Ball!" Ash commanded tersely. He did not want Saur to get hurt by one of those thing. "Don't let it get close."

Saur grunted, channeling his energy to form a green orb right in front of him before he released to sphere at Rockruff. The rock-type whimpered as the orb came close, but zigzagged his way out of the attack. The Energy Ball exploded violently against a spire of rock.

A foot before Rockruff clamped his flaming jaws onto Saur, a tentacle shot out from the saurian's side and wrapped around Rockruff's neck and carried it away from Saur, who winced in annoyance as an ember flew from Rockruff's mouth and splattered against his face. Rockruff was growling as he tried to wriggle out of Saur's grasp, but the grass-type's grip was like steel.

"Slam it," Ash said.

Saur nodded and threw Rockruff to the ground, but the canine pushed himself up a few seconds later. "Rockruff, Rock Throw!" Brock exclaimed. Rockruff howled, causing the rocks around his neck to glow white as an orb appeared in his gaping mouth. The orb quickly dissolved into rocks that were fired at Saur at an alarming speed.

"Dodge," Ash commanded tersely. Saur pushed himself out of the way with his vines, avoiding most of the rocks. A few managed to hit him and he grimaced as the pointed rocks dug into his skin.

Brock eyed Saur warily. "Rockruff, Fire Fang. Follow up with Thunder Fang."

"Saur, hit it with Vine Whip, then hold it still!" Ash told his friend as Rockruff raced towards the grass-type, fangs burning with flames. Saur grunted and extended two vines from his body and lashed out at the advancing rock-type.

Rockruff managed to evade the first two Vine Whips, but the third one struck it on its neck and sent Rockruff howling in pain. Saur raised the vine again to whip Rockruff, but the canine swiftly recovered from its dazed state and shot towards its opponent.

Saur screamed as Rockruff clamped his jaws on his short neck, flaming fangs digging sharply into his body. Saur glared furiously at Rockruff and wrapped a vine tightly around Rockruff's neck and pulled him away, ignoring the pain that came from removing the embedded teeth from his skin.

Rockruff barked furiously as Saur held it ten feet into the air with his vines, wriggling to get free. Saur simply tightened his grip on the rock-type before forming an Energy Ball in front of his saurian mouth.

The orb exploded violently upon impact and Saur hastily retracted his vines, loosening his grip on Rockruff. A loud _thud_ followed the explosion and, once the dust cleared out, Rockruff was sprawled on the ground, breathing heavily.

Saur warily watched the canine, searching for any signs of consciousness, but gave up when Rockruff didn't so much as twitch. Brock recalled Rockruff without saying anything and replaced it with another pokeball.

"Impressive…" Brock smirked. "But let's see if you can take this thing down. Onix, I require your assistance!"

Ash blanched as Brock tossed the pokeball high in the air before snapping open and releasing white energy that began to take the general shape of the pokémon. The only problem: the pokeball didn't stop spewing the energy for what felt like eternity before the glow around the pokémon faded and revealed its terrifying form.

A gargantuan living chain of rocks nearly seven meters long stood on the field, glaring at Saur with beady black eyes. A rocky spine jutted from its head and its tough hide was craggy and gray. The lower half of its body was coiled so to prevent it from breaking through the gym.

Onix _roared_ , causing the glass panes in the gym to shudder. Saur visibly trembled, but didn't let the size difference deter him. He growled threateningly and extended his vines, ready to strike it at any second.

Onix weren't as powerful as they seemed to be. It was only their massive size that intimidated pokémon, although their bulky bodies were an obvious threat. Judging from the gray hide and the length of Onix, Ash assumed it to be newly hatched, maybe three months old. Full grown Onix had black hides and we're incredibly massive.

Moreover, Ash was sure that Brock couldn't use an experienced Onix against newbie trainers, or else league officials would come knocking. He was sure that Saur could take the beast down.

Flint slashed his hand down. "Bulbasaur versus Onix – begin!"

"Power Whip," Ash ordered quickly. "Hit it between the rocks!"

Saur darted forward while charging a vine with tremendous energy. Onix simply eyed him with amusement as the grass-type approached it.

Brock smirked. "Dragon Tail!"

Onix's long tail glowed a sharp, lustrous emerald color at a fairly quicker pace than Saur's Power Whip. It swiped at its opponent just as the Bulbasaur smacked his purple-glowing vine at Onix.

An explosion ripped the air as the two attacks collided, sending Saur flying back and pushing Onix a meter away. Saur managed to save himself from a nasty crash by latching onto a spire of rock with his vines and safely setting himself down.

"Energy Ball!" Saur summoned his stored energy and quickly formed the familiar green sphere before releasing it at Onix. The rock-type behemoth groaned in pain as the super-effective move struck its body and burst upon contact.

Brock snapped his fingers. "Onix, Rock Polish and Bind it."

Onix surrounded itself with white energy, glowing for a moment before it dissipated. Onix bolted at Saur with blinding speed as it coiled Saur with its serpentine body, causing the seed pokémon to yelp in surprise, then cry out in pain as the Bind began to crush him.

His thoughts raced as he struggled to find out a way to get Saur out of Onix's clutches. He couldn't stand to see Saur struggling against Onix's body, choking and coughing and gasping in pain as the serpentine creature continued to bind him tighter and tighter.

Ash managed to see a flaw in the scene and snorted in happiness. "Saur, hit it with Vine Whip! Don't stop until it let's you go!"

Saur managed to catch his trainer's commands and screamed in annoyance before two vines shot out from under his bulb and began thrashing the living daylights out of Onix. The rock-type behemoth winced in pain as Saur kept lashing it with his vines without stopping for a second. Now and again, Saur's strikes would hit harder and harder, making Onix twitch uncomfortably and loosen its grip.

Finally Brock made his decision to not compromise super-effective Vine Whips for Bind. "Let go, Onix! Get back here!"

Onix loosened his grip and slithered away from Saur, who fell to the ground grimacing in pain. His legs would tremble occasionally as they tried to support his weight. That Bind had really taken a toll on him, but even Onix was breathing heavily.

Ash gritted his teeth. They were completely unprepared for Onix's superior strength. He was sure that a couple of full-powered Tackles would take him down.

"Onix, Rock Slide!" Brock roared. "Finish it off!"

Onix bellowed in agreement, and suddenly the ripples of energy formed mid-air. Onix thrashed his tail aggressively against the ground, and large grey boulders tumbled out of the ripples, plummeting to the ground.

Saur frantically scurried around the field, trying his best to evade the boulders that came crashing towards him. He managed to avoid one, two, _five_ …until one finally met its mark.

Saur screamed in agony as the rock pinned him to the ground, burying him under a pile of stones and mud as the boulder cracked into smaller pieces. His legs struggled to push himself up, but each time he did he would fall to the ground and it became harder for him to do it.

Ash couldn't bear to see his pokémon, his _friend_ , in such agony. He opened his mouth and said, "I forf—'"

Saur _glowed_.

Ash watched, transfixed and slack-jawed, as Saur shone like the morning sun and expel an incandescent white light as warm energy seeped from his mature bulb. His body shook as it was filled with power, until he was finally an immense ball of evolutionary energy.

When they light fizzled out, Saur had completely changed. It resembled his previous form in as many ways as he looked different from it. His body was fairly bigger and his pigmentation had grown darker. The bulb on his back had finally bloomed into a large, pink bud that wafted a slightly sickly sweet aroma - a short brown trunk and four leafy, green fronds supported it. His legs were sturdier and stronger due to the need to support the large bulb on his back.

 _Ivysaur_ now stood before his trainer, ready for battle.

Brock and his Onix looked quite perturbed, but the teenager hid it quickly with an uneasy smile.

"So," Brock said. "So it seems that your Bulbasaur evolved, but no matter. Onix, take it down! Skull Bash!"

Onix reared his head back, then launched itself at Saur like a bullet. His cranium glowed white as he advanced quickly towards Saur, who simply stared at it.

Ash looked at the Ivysaur in front of him and grinned. "Saur, use Vine Whip."

Saur quickly extended his thick, green, vine-like appendages before swinging them at Onix like a sledgehammer. As the whips hit the rock-type's craggy hide, there was a _smack!_

Ash grinned as he saw Onix come to a halt, bellowing in pain from the powerful attack. Left in the aftermath was a long crack, which kept spreading slowly over the boulder like a disease.

"Onix, Dragon Tail!" Brock yelped, now definitely worried. Onix shook off the pain and swung an emerald-green tail at Saur, who didn't need to be told to dodge the attack.

By the time the dust cleared out, an Energy Ball of immense proportions was formed in front of Saur's gaping maw. Ash could've sworn he heard Onix whimper when he said, "Release it!"

The Energy Ball shot towards Onix, making its way to the rock snake's head. Onix dived down to avoid the attack, but he was too slow. The spheroid exploded and blasted Onix's rocky spine right off.

The roar that followed never left Ash's ears. Onix bellowed in outright fury as the spine snapped from his head, the noise sounding like a thousand rocks scraping against each other. The windows rattled and everyone clamped their ears shut as the screech pierced their eardrums.

Onix groaned one last time as he slumped to the ground, breathing heavily, but it was all over. Brock quickly recalled the brutally defeated creature and sighed as he clipped it to his belt.

"Onix is unable to battle!" Flint declared. "Victory goes to the challenger and his pokémon!"

Ash walked over to Brock, who took out a small badge from his fanny-pack. The dark-skinned teenager smiled at the boy. "That was a great battle. Not many manage to damage Onix so much."

"Thanks, but it was all Saur's work," Ash replied. "Err… In any case, is Onix gonna be okay? I mean, Saur just took his spine right off."

Brock shrugged. "It'll take a couple weeks for it to regenerate back, but he'll be fine. I'll just have to give her a mineral heavy diet, though.

"Anyway, here's your Boulder Badge. It signifies your victory over the Pewter Gym. Looks like you're one step closer to entering the Indigo Conference," Brock added with a smile.

Ash took the badge with a word of thanks. It was a simple silver badge with an octagonal pattern, but to Ash it might as well have been the biggest diamond in the world.

"If you lose the badge or if it gets stolen, don't worry. You can come back here for a replacement," the teenager continued. "Victors are immediately registered in the gym's database, so you won't have to get a rematch if you do lose your badge."

Ash nodded.

"And here is something else," Brock said, now grinning. He opened his fanny-pack once again and removed a brown-tinted disk from the pack, handing it over to Ash. "This is TM Rock Slide – what Onix used a while back against your Ivysaur. However, it's a one-time use TM, so use it well. Don't use it on a pokémon you're gonna regret using on later."

Ash nodded and held the TM gingerly. The League had enforced gym leaders to start giving out TMs to winning challengers so that there would be an additional reason for trainers to get better. However, said leaders would only give out TMs of their respective type, and only eight leaders had that privilege – the eight strongest leaders in Kanto: Brock, Misty, Surge, Erika, Koga, Blaine, Sabrina and Giovanni.

Ash didn't know how many 'lesser' gyms were present in the region, but he guessed that there would be around four or five of them. These gyms were scattered around Kanto and were there for trainers who weren't up to the task of grabbing all standard badges. The only drawback was that these trainers would most likely not be taken in the Conference because the League only took the strongest.

Which was why Ash wasn't going to hit the lesser gyms. He was going to prove his worth by defeating the strongest gyms in Kanto and winning the Indigo Conference. He was going to show everyone that he was as good as Giovanni or Lance or even Red.

He hastily put the TM in the TM Case and smiled at Brock. "Thanks."

Brock nodded. "Oh, and once you're done collecting all required badges, I'd like a rematch. It gets boring here sometimes, and I rarely get strong challengers."

Ash grinned. "I'm definitely up for that challenge."

"Good. Well, I'd love to talk, but I've got another challenger waiting for me." Brock dipped his head and Ash walked away, grinning wider as Jack and Natalie showered him with praises.

"Man, that was awesome!" Jack remarked. He clapped Ash on the shoulder and beamed at him. "I thought Saur was gonna faint, but then – _bayum_! He evolved into an Ivysaur and whupped Onix so bad!"

Jack then smirked at Ash. "Did he give you the Rock Slide TM too?"

"Yeah, I almost forgot about the TM!" Ash said. He took out his TM case and ran his fingers along the several disks in them. "Red told me that his dad used to give out Rock Tomb, but I guess they raised their standards."

Natalie looked at the Rock Slide TM enviously.

"Anyway, let's go." Ash smiled fondly at the scratched pokeball on his belt. "I can't wait to treat Saur."

XxXxX

Ash received his Saur from Nurse Joy with a smile on his face. Zeus was in suspended animation on his belt while Delphi was – typically – perched on his shoulder. Aside from wanting Saur healed up after his brutal battle against Brock, he also wanted the dinosaurian to undergo a checkup with Joy to ensure that there weren't any complications regarding his evolution. A very rare occurrence, but Ash didn't want Saur to suffer later on. Fortunately, Joy had told the boy that Saur was perfect and couldn't be better.

After that he, along with Jack and Natalie, headed to the food court for dinner. Ash and Jack, euphoric over their victory against Brock, we're feeling generous and decided to splurge a bit more over their dinner, rather than eating at the Pokémon Centre's cafeteria. Jack caught a table while Natalie and Ash went in search for a good place to order their food from.

Ash and Natalie returned from Abdul's Falafel twenty minutes later with steaming squares of spiced ground beef kibbeh, a stack of lamb kebabs with mint yoghurt dip, a gazillion fresh slabs of pita bread filled with deep-fried nuggets of chickpea goodness, bathed in tahini sauce and garnished with pickle wedges.

Ash, Natalie and Jack quickly released their pokémon. The Pewter Mall was one of the few public places in the city which allowed trainers to roam around with their pokémon in the food court. The only other place in Pewter which had similar rules was the Pokémon Centre, where Ash didn't want to have dinner.

Saur and Zeus (Delphi was perched on his shoulder) perked up as the white light exuded from the pokeball faded. Saur growled a greeting to his trainer while Zeus did the same before looking at Saur with newfound interest.

A smirked as the Mareep circled Saur, his eyes wide and mouth open as he looked at the dinosaurian. Saur smirked smugly as Zeus sniffed him with newfound interest, paying special attention the large, pink bud on his back. Zeus opened his mouth to bite at one of the leafy fronds supporting the bud, then snickered once Saur made an angry growl as he noticed him.

Zephyr, Natalie's Pidgey, Charmander, Shroomish, Buford, Diego and Einstein also came over to Saur to inspect him, much to Saur's happiness. He seemed to like the attention he was getting. Charmander simply smiled and congratulated Saur for his success at evolving with a growl. Zephyr simply puffed his chest and flew over to Natalie's shoulder. Buford and Einstein simply looked at Saur for a moment before returning to their food, while Diego glowed violently and readied himself for the explosion, causing Jack to recall him in the nick of time.

Ash chewed his food slowly as he mused about tomorrow's plans. He, Natalie and Jack would hit Mt Moon. The mountain acted as a pass between Cerulean and Pewter City, and it was used by many trainers passing back and forth between the two cities. Moreover, Mt Moon held a myriad of pokémon, and he certainly wanted to catch another pokémon on Mt Moon. The only problem was that there weren't many that Ash really wanted.

According to the pokédex, Geodude and Zubat were extremely common in Mt Moon, which was predictable, since Geodude inhabited rocky and mountainous areas while Zubat inhabited caves. However, Ash wanted neither of them. Geodude had a range of weakness that could be easily exploited by opponent trainers, and were effective and able battlers only as Golem. Zubat were incredibly sensitive to light, which meant that Ash would have to give up on sleeping longer as to train a Zubat.

Then there were other pokémon, like Sandshrew and Paras. Ash immediately skipped the latter because they were very weak to flying- and fire-types. Sandshrew would be a good enough choice and give Ash a counter to electric-types.

But there was one pokémon rumored to be in Mt Moon, one Ash really wanted – possibly the rarest in all of Kanto, with only Bulbasaur and the elusive Dratini along with it – Clefairy. Although their outer appearances didn't suggest it, they were fantastic battlers, and their reservoir of potential was limitless. They had a decent move pool and their typing also made them immune to dragon-type attacks, making them the perfect counter to some of the most dangerous and powerful pokémon in the world.

Ash shrugged. If he found a Clefairy, he would certainly catch it. If he didn't, then he would just have to move on to Cerulean.

Ash gave out a burp of satisfaction once he finished his food, earning laughter from the group. He petted Zeus on the head and butted in the conversation between Jack and Natalie, who were debating whether a Gyarados could fly.

After this, all he wanted to do was _sleep_.

XxXxX

The next morning, Ash woke up an hour earlier than planned, heading straight for the training field behind the Pokémon Centre. He had two things in mind: checking out Saur's capabilities and teaching Zeus Wild Charge.

Ash quickly let his three friends out of their pokeballs. Delphi immediately hopped onto his shoulder while Zeus and Saur simply stared at their trainer.

"Okay, first off we're gonna check you, Saur," Ash told his friend. The Ivysaur nodded and his scarlet eyes twinkled. "Do you feel stronger?"

Saur experimentally extended his vines and looked at each of them before performing the wave motion with the two tentacles. Ash snorted at the behavior and Saur too chuckled before crouching and standing on his hind legs. The saurian seemed quite impressed by his form.

"Good." Ash smiled fondly at his friend. "Are you sure you're fine? No complications at all?"

Saur grunted affirmative. Ash smiled wider and petted him before turning his attention to Zeus.

"Alright, we're gonna keep working on Wild Charge. Saur, you can take a break – at least for now."

Saur grunted and trotted over to a patch of grass that was soaking in sunlight. He sighed in relief as he slowly set himself on the ground, absorbing sunlight for his growth.

Ash smirked. Saur could relax all he wanted for now. He'd earned it.

He turned his attention to Zeus, who was glaring at him for not paying attention.

"Right…Wild Charge. I know you can hold that electricity for a long time, but now I need you to start moving with it. Are you up for it?"

After all that training of trying to cloak himself in electricity, Zeus had finally learnt Charge, a move that required the user to ionize the air in a matter of seconds and use that to increase their own electric potential significantly. Charge had made it easier for Zeus to enshroud himself in electricity and Ash was happy to say that the Mareep was one step closer to mastering Wild Charge.

Zeus nodded a few seconds later. Ash took a few steps back as the Mareep was cloaked in electricity, then began to take a round of the field.

Zeus lasted only about six seconds before the electricity began breaking up. Finally the cocoon of electricity vanished, leaving only sparks still crackling around his wool.

"Okay…" Ash scratched the back of his neck. "That wasn't good enough. Let's try that again."

Zeus nodded in determination before he quickly enshrouded himself in electricity. Ash watched as he took off, committed to not disappoint his trainer.

XxXxX

Ash was currently on Route Three, battling a young girl about his age. "Rattata, use Quick Attack!" she yelled.

The purple rodent shot off with a burst of energy, leaving behind a trail of white light as it rushed towards Delphi, who was leering at the advancing Rattata in front of a tree. The Natu shrieked and teleported away, causing Rattata to slam into the tree with full force.

"Drill Peck!" Ash called out.

Delphi shrieked once again, leaping into the air before corkscrewing towards Rattata with an enlarged beak. Rattata, still dazed from its crash against the tree, did nothing except for scream as Delphi's beak slammed into its side.

Delphi hopped back to her trainer's side while the girl recalled Rattata, scowling. The girl detached another pokeball and sent out an average-looking Spearow.

"Alright, Delphi, come back for now. You did great," Ash said.

Delphi glared at her trainer, clearly wanting to battle more, but reluctantly hopped over to Ash's shoulder. Ash detached a pokeball from his belt and tapped the release button, sending Zeus out in an instant.

Ash's opponent bit her lower lip nervously as she saw the Mareep's horns spark, but shook away the doubt and pointed dramatically at Zeus. "Spearow, use Fury Attack!"

Ash smirked. "Thundershock!"

The lass blanched. "Spearow, speed up with Aerial Ace!"

Zeus fired a Thundershock in the form of a thin bolt, but Spearow suddenly flapped its red-feathered wings and dodged the attack with a burst of shocking speed. Spearow slammed into Zeus, but he barely even felt the attack. Flying-type moves weren't very effective against electric-types.

Before Spearow could bolt away, however, Zeus launched another Thundershock at it, this time hitting his mark. Spearow shrieked in agony as its feathers stood on end from the discharge of electricity that struck it dead-on. Spearow managed to go over to its trainer's side, but it was struggling to stay in the air.

"Spearow, Fury Attack!" its trainer yelled at it.

Spearow feebly headed towards Zeus, beak glowing white, and Ash decided to try something new.

"Wild Charge!"

Zeus quickly built up a cloak of electricity and began to run at Spearow, picking up speed as he got closer. He crashed into the fatigued bird, electrifying it with his cocoon of electrons, but Ash was disappointed to that the electricity around Zeus had broken up a split-second after he impacted Spearow. He and Zeus would have to work on that.

The tiny bird pokémon fell down, unconscious, and its trainer sulking recalled it and rudely thrust Ash's prize money into his hand. Ash allowed himself a smug smile as the girl stormed away, furious at her defeat.

Ash carefully petted Zeus, and winced when he felt a static shock go through his arm. "That was better, buddy," Ash told his friend slowly, "but we still gotta work on that. Okay?"

Zeus hung his head gloomily, downcast at his performance and at his trainer's words. Ash sighed. Maybe he'd just been expecting a lot more than his friends could do. "I'm sorry, Zeus. Wild Charge is a bit difficult for you, but I know that you'll get it sooner or later. I didn't mean to be harsh."

Zeus looked up at Ash with a strange glimmer in his eyes. It was a fire that told Ash that he wasn't weak. He would not let his trainer down, and he would prove his worth by learning Wild Charge.

Ash smiled hesitantly at the Mareep. "Okay, Zeus."

"Yo! Ash!" a voice said. "You coming or what?"

Ash turned around to see Jack with an exasperated look on his face. "I'm coming," he yelled back before turning to Zeus. "Let's go."

The rest of the journey to the entrance of Mt Moon was quite action-packed. There was a multitude waiting for Ash, Natalie and Jack, and they spent most of the morning battling almost every trainer they met. Ash defeated all of the trainers he battled, but lost against one who sent out a giant of a Graveler and gave Saur a rough time. Ash was slightly bummed out that his undefeated record was blemished, but even the other trainer admitted that his Ivysaur had put up a pretty good fight anyway. After bringing the Ivysaur back to consciousness, he demolished every single trainer he met.

He sent only Delphi and Zeus out for the rest of the challenges, mainly because they wouldn't get to do much in Mt Moon with the many ground- and rock-types. Delphi was easily sweeping her opponents and Zeus was doing quite well too. He was working on Wild Charge like his life depended on it, and Ash was happy to see the determination of his pokémon.

Even though Ash didn't use Saur at all for any battle, he still made the saurian walk by his side for the rest of the journey. Evolution cause drastic changes within pokémon and it took some time for them to get familiar with their new forms. Ash wanted Saur to be fine with his body so that he wouldn't face any problems in battles.

Finally, the trio of trainers and their pokémon reached the Pokémon Centre and quickly went in to heal their pokémon and restock their supplies. Their time in Viridian Forest had completely drained their medicines and food, so Ash and Jack went over to the Pokémart next to the Centre and bought everything that they would need in the mountain: revives, potions, ropes, flashlight, the lot. Once Natalie returned with their pokémon they split the supplies three ways before making their way to Mt Moon.

Ash removed his heavy-duty flashlight from his Hammerspace backpack. It was one of the several essential items he'd packed for his journey for whenever he entered dark terrains.

"This is it." Ash gulped.

"Hello, darkness," Natalie muttered gloomily.

"Goodbye, hot girls," Jack said, earning a chuckle from Ash and a glare from Natalie.

Together, they fearlessly plunged into the mountain.

XxXxX

Ash didn't know much about caves, but one thing was for sure: the number of Zubat were infinite in them.

Every once in a white, they stumbled across a colony of Zubat. The poison-types easily sensed the humans' presence due to their echolocation, and although they kept hissing at them Ash knew that they wouldn't attack unless provoked or if they had a Golbat leading them. Fortunately, the group had yet to encounter such a colony, and the Zubat left them alone, although they still hissed furiously until they were far out of range.

Although Ash encountered more Zubat than he cared to count, he did find some other pokémon – Geodude hopping and grunting, Paras skittering timidly and Sandshrew burrowing deep underground whenever the group came ten feet within them. Ash didn't find them interesting, although Natalie excitedly caught an eager Geodude who came right up to them and slugged Jack angrily in the stomach. The other two still hadn't gotten over laughing at the hilarious scene.

Aside from the pokémon, the trio had also run into a few good trainers, all of them on their level. Although Natalie and Jack had lost a single match each, Ash was happy at the fact that he hadn't lost a single match in the mountain, much to his companions' jealousy.

But, when they'd reached the halfway point, things started to go wrong.

There were rarely any pokémon to be seen. Aside from a few Geodude and a handful of Zubat, Ash didn't see any other pokémon at all. Saur kept pricking his ear to pick up something and snarling at something out of his reach. Delphi seemed even more disturbed. She constantly kept looking in every possible direction, a trace of uneasiness in her eyes.

Moreover, the group hadn't encountered any trainers after that at all. Frankly, the lack of life disturbed Ash. He didn't expect Mt Moon to be so dry of life – from what he'd heard, Mt Moon was filled with trainers travelling from Cerulean to Pewter and vice versa.

Finally, when they came near to a large cavern in one of the highest levels of Mt Moon, the group saw signs of life – but not the kind they hoped for.

"Man, this work sucks," a deep, gravelly voice said. The sound of metal hitting "Why do we gotta do this kinda shit?!"

"Because we're grunts," another voice said, this one rougher. "Now shut your mouth and keep digging, Fido. I don't want Proton on our asses because of your big mouth."

The first grunt, Fido, grunted as another one of those noises came – maybe they were mining? "Anyway, this Moon Stone bullshit – I ain't buyin' it. We've been diggin' this mountain the whole day! Why not just let Proton destroy this place with his damn Steelix?"

"Because that would make the whole tunnel collapse, grunt," a new voice said. "There's a reason why you're a you're a lowly grunt while I'm a high executive. Now get working, shit-heads! I don't wanna hear another peep outta y'all, or else Team Rocket's gonna have to do with a few else grunts."

"Yes, Sir Proton!" the two grunts exclaimed. "Certainly, Sir Proton!"

"Good." Proton snorted. "Now I gotta go interrogate those kids who came across here. Either they join Team Rocket, or, well…I'll leave that to your imagination."

Ash could hear the grunts' gulps all the way from there, but that didn't matter. What caught his attention and made the three trainers freeze was the name Proton had said: Team Rocket. The most nefarious criminal organization in all of the Kohto continent. Sure, Ash had encountered Team Rocket previously, but those were three jokesters who had crap pokémon and a talking Meowth with them. Plus, Nurse Joy had ultimately defeated them. This was the real deal.

Saur seemed to pick up on Ash's feelings and began to growl, but Ash stopped him, not wanting to draw the Rockets' attention. He wanted to run away back to Pewter with Jack and Natalie, since Team Rocket had an executive with, but what Proton had said made him stop. They'd captured traveling trainers… He couldn't just leave them at the mercy of Team Rocket. As much as he hated it, his hero-self took over.

"W-we've got to get out of here," Natalie said, eyes wide with fear. "Team Rocket's here!"

Ash looked at her I surprise. "We can't just leave! You heard them, they've imprisoned some trainers! We have to save them!"

Jack stuttered, "But—"

"You guys can run away if you want to." Ash cut him off coldly. "I'm not leaving them behind."

"And we aren't leaving you behind," Natalie replied. Her eyes were full of concern. "If you're going to get yourself into this madness, we're in it."

Natalie seemed determined. Jack wrung his hands nervously, but he too relented. Ash nodded his head.

"Okay, the plan is simple. We obviously can't take a whole squad of Rockets on our own, so we'll have to it their way," he said.

"Play dirty?" Jack guessed.

Ash grinned. "Yeah."

"And I can even send an alert on ," Natalie suggested. "The rangers and police will be here in no time."

"That'll be great," Ash said. "Come on. Let's get going."

Ash petted Saur, whose eyes had narrowed as rage built up in those scarlet orbs. "You know the situation, bud, but I can't use you. You're too big an attraction fro those Rockets."

Saur nodded, ever ready to listen to whatever his trainer would say, but his rage at the Rockets didn't lessen. His mouth was twisted in a snarl the whole time.

The trio quietly released their pokémon, although there were certain exceptions; Natalie kept Charmander in his pokeball since his tail flame was bound to attract attention, while Jack didn't release Buford and Diego due to the former's hyperactive personality and the latter's explosive tendency.

"Delphi, I need you to scout for us first," Ash said. "If there are Rockets up ahead, I need you to warn us immediately. Got it?"

Delphi chirped softly in agreement. Ash turned to Zeus. "Zeus, you'll be with me. If we run into any Rockets, paralyze them with Thunder Wave." Ash smiled when the Mareep nodded determinedly and then faced Jack and Natalie, who were done giving their pokémon orders.

"I've told Ace to go with your Natu," Natalie said, pointing at her Shroomish. "He'll paralyze any Rockets with Stun Spore."

"And Einstein'll be with us," Jack chimed in. "I've taught him to put up Barriers, so that should protect us from surprise attacks."

"Good thinking, Jack!" Natalie beamed at him admiringly. Jack grinned back at her.

"Come on," Ash said. "Let's—"

"Hey!" a voice thundered from along the tunnel. "Get those kids!"

Ash whipped around as fast as a bullet and his blood froze. Four Rocket grunts were charging towards them, their eyes glaring hard at them as they got closer to the trio every second.

"Run!" Jack shouted, and the three of them took to their heels, although the Rockets were gaining on them. Ash heard the familiar sound of pokémon being released and continued to run even faster.

It was only when he saw a sharp turn did he come to a halt, slowing down to prevent bumping against the tunnel's walls, but that was his downfall. The Rockets easily caught up to them and quickly surrounded the trio, causing them to converge in the center with their pokémon protecting them.

"Forget it, kid," a Rocket said, a menacing Raticate at his side, foam dripping from its mouth. "Your little monsters are no match for ours. Call them off and hand them over; no one needs to be hurt."

"Never," Ash snarled. Zeus bleated threateningly, causing another Rocket to chuckle.

"Listen, runt." The Rocket grinned savagely. "Hand over your pokeballs or else we'll kill your pokémon. I bet Team Rocket can do without a few more to their arsenal, however precious they may be."

Ash's eyes burned as he saw a Rocket grab Zeus' pokeball and return him into the capsule. The same was done to Delphi, and the others'. He might never see his friends again. They would either be tortured by the unethical experiments Team Rocket held or be killed if resisted.

"Come on," the same Rocket said. "Let's keep them with the rest of the prisoners. Sir Proton will be pleased."

The other Rockets grunted in understanding and three of them advanced towards Natalie, Jack and Ash. Ash gulped as he saw the one handling Jack smack him smartly on the back of the boy's head with his gun, although he didn't see what they did to Natalie as a grunt firmly held a chloroform-stained rag – he knew it was chloroform because it smelled so nice – against his face. It was only a matter of seconds before he went weak in the knees and his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he fell to the ground, knocked out.

XxXxX

Ash's eyes snapped open in alarm and fear at what had happened. His vision focused in an instant and he shook violently against his tight bonds that kept him still. His hands were tied behind his back and his legs were tied up too. His heart rated increased rapidly as he frantically tried to remember what had happened.

Rockets… Team Rocket had apprehended them and stolen their pokémon. A steady rage built up in his chest and his blood boiled. He would take his revenge against the villainous organization if it was the last thing he would do.

A voice shocked him back to reality. "Finally awake, are ya?"

Ash snapped to his right and saw Jack smiling sadly at him. "You slept for a long time, Ash."

"Ugh…" Ash groaned, wiping the dried drool on his cheek with his shoulder. "How long was I out? And where's Nat?"

"Second question first," Jack decided. "Natalie's with another pair of Rockets. From what I saw, there are approximately twenty-five swarming this place. She's been kept with other girls who they caught."

Ash cursed under his breath. If what Jack swaying was true, then it was a good thing they didn't take Team Rocket on their own. His plan sounded like a suicide mission.

The only thing he could hope for was the League to take their report seriously and send some help down here…

"As for how long you were out," Jack continued, "I'd say about three hours. Those goons got you good."

Ash scanned the place. It had been converted into a mine of some sort, which made Ash narrow his eyes in suspicion. It looked like Team Rocket was searching for something other than trainers and their pokémon. Ash noticed only two Rockets guarding Ash and Jack, and both were looking bored and kept yawning, and a tent was placed near the grunts. Maybe they could take them out with a surprise attack, but without their pokémon…

Something clicked in his head, something that almost made him grin. Saur's pokeball was still with him. He'd recalled his friend because he was too obvious a target. He could easily take down the two Rockets in the room, but the only problem was that he couldn't reach the pokeball in his pocket what with his hand tied up.

"Anyways," he said airily, "I made some acquaintances while you were drooling. Meet Terence, Matthew, Carter and Paul."

Ash looked at Jack's right, where he had somehow completely overlooked the four trainers bound in ropes with them. Terence was a dark-skinned boy about his age with black hair in a crew-cut; Matthew was a burly fourteen-year-old with bright, blue eyes; Carter was a weedy looking boy, perhaps a year older to Ash; and Paul was his age with deep purple hair and intense dark eyes. Ash quickly remembered him as the same trainer who had been with them in the Pewter Gym.

"Uh, hello," he greeted. The others, excluding Paul, greeted him back, although half-heartedly. Then he addressed Paul. "You're the same kid who challenged Brock yesterday, right?"

Paul simply nodded. He had a bored expression that almost matched the Rockets'.

The six of them began exchanging stories to pass the time.

"I didn't even know these buggers were here," Matthew grumbled. "Damn Rockets came onto me before I could even do anything."

The blue-eyed teen smirked. "Anyway, I did manage to kick one of them in the balls. That's how I got this," he said, pointing at the bruise on his cheek with his eyes.

"Anyway," Matthew continued, "I've been planning to escape for a long time now. I have two of my team still with me," he added with a dangerous smile.

Ash's eyes widened in surprise at this news. "You still have your pokémon with you?"

"'Course I do," the teenager said. "Bloody Rockets can't see properly. They didn't even notice me sneak those two pokeballs into my jacket. Terence here still has his Doduo while Paul managed to keep his Turd-something with him."

"Turtwig," Paul snapped angrily. Then he went back to his bored self.

Matthew shrugged. "Anyway, we didn't have much time to do anything 'cause we woke up around the same time as Jack here. He—"

"Hey!" Ash jerked towards the source of the noise, and scowled when he saw a Rocket walking haughtily to the captives. "Didn't I tell you chumps not to talk?"

"Yeah you did," Matthew said angrily, "but I don't listen well to scum."

The Rocket turned red with rave and punched Matthew across the face. "Any more cheek from you," the Rocket growled, "and I will personally feed you to Sir Proton's Houndoom. Got it?"

"Why Proton's pokémon?" Matthew continued. "Don't you have anything other than those shitty Rattata you screw with every night?"

The Rocket made an angry movement towards Matthew, but fortunately the other grunt stopped his companion. "Forget it, Trask. Leave the kid alone."

With one last angry glare, the Rockets walked back to their positions. Jack and Terence snickered at the conversation between Matthew and Trask; the teen seemed pretty pleased with himself.

Matthew harrumphed. "That's the Rocket whose nuts I smashed," he explained. "He's not very happy with me."

"I can see that," Ash deadpanned. "Anyway, what're they searching for? They turned this whole place into a mine or something."

"From what I've heard, they're searching for Clefairy and moon stones," Carter said. "I heard that leader of theirs talk to the grunts and I managed to catch a bit of what they were talking about."

Ash nodded. "Look, we've got to get out of here. With our pokémon we already have, we could easily give these Rockets a run for their money. Jack, Natalie and I have already put up an alert on , but we don't know whether they'll take our report seriously or not."

Terence shrugged. "What if they send the League?"

"What if they don't?" Ash countered desperately. "Look, the more time we waste, the closer Team Rocket gets to their goals. I've already got a plan in my head," he added, "but everything will depend on Jack."

The others looked as flabbergasted as Jack himself. "Jack?" Paul asked, puzzled. "Why Jack?"

Ash smirked. "Jack has a very well known gift," he said. "Jack can ventriloquize."

"Huh?" Jack muttered, but a split-second second later comprehension dawned across his face. " _Huh_!"

"Exactly," Ash said, as if all discussion was finished. "But Jack, you can't make any mistake or else those Rockets will be onto us. Do you understand?"

Jack nodded hesitantly. He wasn't used to such responsibility.

"I don't get it," Terence said, still confused. "What happens if Jack can ventriloquize?"

Ash sighed. "Okay. The plan is simple. Jack will first…"

XxXxX

About an hour later, the plan was set. Everyone had stopped talking for half an hour, much to Trask's and the other Rocket's pleasure. Then, Paul tapped the ground with his finger, giving everyone the signal.

Jack quickly got an innocent expression on his face – a look that all in Pallet Town knew only _too_ well.

A blood-curdling growl came from the tunnel connected to the chamber – a growl that snapped the grunts awake and made them flinch.

"Wh-Whassat?!" a Rocket, whom Ash recognized as Trask, stuttered.

"I don't know," the other replied, equally mystified and terrified. "Might be some wild pokémon."

"Wild pokémon don't growl so blood-curdling-ly!" Trask shot back.

And then another voice, a cheerful voice, came: "Come on, come on, let's go! Ooooh, where's my auntie?"

The grunts listened, terrified. Someone was coming closer, with a huge beast of a pokémon by their side, and Ash now knew that Rocket grunts were as stupid as they looked. He badly wanted to laugh, but he firmly thrust down the ever-mounting guffaw that wanted to rise up and explode. Ash's eyes slyly turned to the right to see Jack, who was doing his part very well; the only sign that showed that he was practicing ventriloquism was the little vibration in his throat, but the Rockets weren't that observant. What really marveled Ash was the way Jack could change his voice so well and sound just like anybody else.

"Might be someone with their pokémon," Trask muttered.

"But why would they be searching for their auntie?" the other grunt wondered in bewilderment.

"I don't know, but we might as well snag that auntie too when we catch those travelers," Trask said to himself. "Kenton, let's go!"

So Rockets Kenton and Trask walked off to catch the imaginary trainer and his imaginary auntie, leaving the captured trainers all alone in the large chamber of Mt Moon, which normally served as a resting spot. The six of them quickly huddled towards each other and began to untie each others bonds as of their life depended on it, which it did.

"That auntie bit!" Matthew guffawed uncontrollably as he tried to set Jack free. "Oh, what made you think of that? That's a touch of genius, that is!"

"Just a random idea," Jack replied, trying to look modest but failing miserably.

"We can laugh all we want after we get each other free," Paul said, finally untying Ash's bonds and the dark-haired boy setting him free too. "Right now we've got to get out of this. Remember, the Rockets can be here at any moment, and it's going to look really bad if they see us midway."

"Okay, fine," Terence said, who was paired up with Carter. "Ugh – guys, can anyone help me with this?"

"Oi," Matthew said, "check my jeans – I've got a survival knife around here somewhere."

"Why didn't you tell us about it before?" Ash grumbled, but he quickly found the survival knife a flipped it open. It was only a matter of a moment before all six of them were sprawled over the ground, untied and free.

"Okay," Ash said. "Now that we've gotten past phase one, let's get to phase two. Matthew, Jack, and Carter – you go and free the girls. You guys know where they're kept, right?"

The three nodded.

"Be quiet about it," he warned. "We don't want the Rockets to raise the alarm and take away the element of surprise."

He turned towards Terence and Paul. "The three of us will take down Trask and Kenton, then join the other three. Got it?"

Terence and Paul nodded.

"Okay, enough of talk, let's go!" Matthew said. "Team Rocket's going to get a _very_ nasty surprise."

XxXxX

Taking down Trask and Kenton was easily Ash released Saur, but it wasn't needed; Paul had an Elekid on hand that noiselessly shocked the two grunts (who were still talking about missing aunties) into unconsciousness. The three of them had the knocked out grunts tied up with their own ropes and holed up in a corner where they couldn't easily be seen.

"Okay," Carter said, releasing his Meowth, who pawed lazily upon being called out. "Let's go."

Just as they began heading towards the other chamber, the three of them heard a shout that was quickly muffled into nonexistence. Alarmed, they ran to help the others, but it was only a Rocket that was hit over his head.

Four Rockets lay sprawled on the ground, knocked out with their pokémon taken. Around eight girls were tied up in one side, although they were now being freed with the help of Matthew's survival knife.

"Sorry about being so loud," Matthew said sheepishly. "I guess that blow from Machoke really hurt."

Ash's eyes couldn't help but be drawn to the brutal-looking reptilian fighter, who simply snorted and showed off his powerful muscles.

"And he's a big show-off, too," its trainer added, smirking.

"Cool," Carter muttered, awestruck. "What's the other pokémon you've got right now?"

"I have Victreebel with me," the teen answered. "Anyway, according to them girls, the Rockets have kept all of our pokeballs holed up in their leader's fanny-pack. All we need to do is get that from him, and bingo – we've got mail."

"Great," Paul said. "Any idea where their leader is?"

Matthew shrugged. "Jack did a bit of interrogation and found out what they were doing – according to him they're searching for the 'legendary Moon Stone' or something like that," he added with a roll of his eyes, obviously not believing a word. "It seems that—"

"Yo!" a new voice shouted from one of the tunnels connecting to the chamber. "Charlie, Ray, Torque, Nico! Get your asses over here! We've struck gold! I repeat, we've struck—"

The voice came to a halt when the person in question – a short Rocket – noticed everyone in the room. He muttered, "Oh, shit," and began running away towards the rest of his gang.

It was only Matthew's Machoke who saved them. The brawler caught hold of the criminal in a second and easily lifted him five feet off the ground. He began squealing like a pig, but was immediately silence by a vicious punch to the gut.

"If you value your worthless life, answer my questions," Matthew snarled ferociously. "What gold? And where are the rest of you losers hidden?"

"I-I'll t-t-talk," the grunt stuttered. "W-we've finally f-found the legend-dary Moon Stone and the Clefairy of M-Mt M-M-Moon. Sir Proton and the r-rest of the team are at the other end of the b-b-b-base, in the Ceremonial Room."

"How many of you are there?" was Matthew's next question.

"Twenty-eight, including me, Charlie, Ray, Kenton, Trask, Nico and Torque," the Rocket stammered. "Please don't kill me!"

Matthew smiled dangerously. "Oh, I won't kill you," he said softly. He slipped a hand over the Rocket's mouth just as Machoke knocked him unconscious with a soft blow to the head.

"Well, it looks like we got seven of them out of the way," Terence said. "Which leaves only twenty-one left for six of us guys. What a mismatch."

"Don't forget us girls too," a girl said from behind them. "Most of us have our pokémon with us."

"They didn't search you people too?!" Jack exclaimed, incredulous.

"Course they didn't," a familiar looking girl said. Ash remembered as the trainer he'd faced on Route One – Misty was her name. "Damn Rockets can't see shit."

"Okay, whoever doesn't have a pokémon with them, pair up with someone that does," Paul ordered. "We can't leave anyone behind."

The others murmured in agreement. Three girls didn't seem to have any pokémon on hand, so the only fighters were eleven of them, which was a good number against twenty-one weak Rockets. The grunts were just fodder; it was the leaders they had to watch out for.

"Ash! Jack!" a familiar voice cried from behind them. The two boys whipped around just as Natalie slammed into them, pulling the two into a vicious hug. "Oh, thank Arceus we all are safe." Ash felt a tear stain his T-shirt.

"Wow," Jack muttered as Natalie kept hugging them. "This is the first time you've showed me any affection, Nat."

"Shut up," she said, finally leaving them. A smirk played across her face. "Now, what would I tell your mothers if you got your asses kicked by some stupid thugs."

"Aaaand she's back." Ash snorted at Jack's comment.

"Let's go, everyone!" Matthew called out in an authoritative voice. "Let's not waste any time."

He led the group of fourteen through a long, narrow, newly-dug tunnel. Unlike the rest of Mt Moon, this one was a straight path that was leading them to an undesired destination: Team Rocket. Almost everyone had their pokémon out; Jack had Buford by his side while Natalie had her Charmander out, his tail-flame flaring orange-red. Saur trotted next to Ash, growling softly.

Finally they reached the exit, which showed off an incandescent white light that blinded them – letting them into a marvelous room that none of them had ever seen before.

It was fifty feet in diameter, with glossy black stone walls. Captivating gems decorated the room, which was open to the sky. A lake in the middle perfectly reflected the moon shining bright, but that wasn't what caught Ash's eyes.

No, what really captured his attention was the _ginormous_ pink and blue obsidian stone that shone like a million stars. The only thing ruining the image was Team Rocket. About twenty Rockets were eyeing the Moon Stone like it was the biggest diamond in the world, with the leader – Ash assumed he was the leader – standing an inch away from the Moon Stone, running a hand through his teal hair.

"Now that we've got the element of surprise, let's get them," Matthew said. "One, two three – go!"

The Rockets froze as the group of trainers exploded into the room, their pokémon by their side. Surprised, the grunts were easily taken out by the trainers' pokémon, although some of them managed to let out a couple of Zubat, Koffing, Ekans and the odd Sandshrew – standard Team Rocket pokémon.

Their leader, Proton, however, was not so easily fazed. He set loose the most savage looking Houndoom Ash had ever seen and screamed. "Get those kids! Get them, or I will flay you alive!"

That threat must've been scarier than the trainers themselves, because the remaining grunts – perhaps ten of them – attacked with new vigor, but they were no match for their opponents. Natalie's Charmander was slashing his way through every Zubat he could find, while Saur was smashing every Rocket pokémon against the walls with his vines. The other trainers were no less; although Carter's Meowth was knocked out, Terence and his Doduo were fighting for the other trainer, and Paul's Elekid was easily incapacitating grunts before they send out more of their pokémon.

Before they knew it, all the Rockets except for Proton and his Houndoom were defeated. As the others' pokémon were worn out, Matthew and his Machoke were battling it out against Proton's Houndoom. The Rocket executive's hair was matted with dirt and his clothes were a mess. With a howl of rage, he took out two more pokeballs and released the captures within.

From one of them the meanest Jolteon burst out, baring electrified fangs at Machoke. The other one contained an Ariados which quickly scuttled away Machoke's range and began shooting silk at it.

"Karate Chop!" Mathew shouted before hurling another pokeball into the air. "Victreebel, I choose you!"

A Victreebel bounced on the ground, then narrowed its beady eyes at the Houndoom, Ariados and the Jolteon in front of it. The flycatcher pokémon spat a glob of thick venom at the Jolteon, but the electric-type bolted out of the way with astonishing speed. Jolteon blasted Machoke in the back with electricity, causing the superpower pokémon to stumble and miss a super-effective Cross Chop at Houndoom.

"We need to help him!" Ash shouted over the battle. The orange-haired girl – Misty – Paul and Jack nodded – they were the only ones with remaining pokémon left.

Paul set loose a small green creature with a large head and a shell on its back. It had a small plant on the top of its head and opened its huge maw. "Turtwig, attack those Rockets. They're the ones who took Magby and Nidoran."

"Starmie, Poliwag, go for the Houndoom!" Misty ordered. "Knock it out!"

Buford screamed in rage and shot himself at Proton's pokémon without any orders. Ash turned to Saur. "Saur, see that fanny pack?" Saur nodded. "Get it away from him. Zeus and Delphi are in that."

The saurian's eyes hardened at the mention of his friends. He would get that pack if it was the last thing he would do.

Matthew wasn't doing quite well, but he was doing a bit better with the other pokémon at his side. Misty's Starmie was as powerful as Matthew's own pokémon, and was busy blasting Houndoom with a barrage of Hydro Pumps. The hound could do nothing but whimper as a final Hydro Pump blasted it in the flank, knocking it out.

Proton outrageously recalled his Houndoom and continued to order his other two monsters. Misty recalled an unconscious Poliwag who had been hit by a stray Thunder Wave powerful enough to knock it out. Starmie was using its psychic prowess to deflect Jolteon's Thunderbolts away, while Machoke and Victreebel were struggling against Proton's skilled Ariados.

"Toxic Thread!" Proton ordered savagely, making Ariados produce a sticky, green version of String Shot. "Jolteon, Thunder – what the _hell_?!"

Saur finely managed to snatch Proton's fanny-pack and began to run towards Ash and into his trainer's waiting arms, but the Rocket executive noticed the sneak attack and glowed with rage. "Jolteon, get that little shit! Thunder Fang!"

Jolteon bared its fangs savagely and shot towards Saur with incredible speed. The saurian yelped as the lightning pokémon's fangs missed his pink bud. Saur scarpered towards Ash, but the twisted Jolteon electrified its fangs one again and lunged at Saur and Ash, ready to bury its teeth into—

"No!" Ash whipped around to see Jack throw Diego at Jolteon with all his strength, Diego hurtling towards Jolteon like a bullet, and Jolteon clamped its fangs down on Diego. The Pineco glowed and began to shake tremendously in Jolteon's maw, and Ash ducked instinctively as he realized what Diego was going to do.

The Pineco self-destructed with a violent explosion right in Jolteon's mouth. The canine howled in pain from the explosion, and once the dust cleared out it showed a steaming and charred Diego lying on the ground and a Jolteon with blood leaking out of its mouth. Ash noticed a bloody fang on the ground and felt sick at the scene, but Jolteon was beyond experiencing pain. It pushed itself up, quite dazed, and glared furiously at Jack.

Just before it could lunge at the petrified boy, however, a psychic explosion ripped the air and blasted Jolteon into the ground. A second later the canine hovered in the air, surrounded by a bright blue light. Ash noticed Misty's Starmie's gem glowing brightly, and quickly understood that the water-type was controlling its opponent with its psychic powers.

Then Jolteon was jarred into unconsciousness by a well-aimed Dynamic Punch from Machoke to the head. The electric-type whined for a seconds before its black eyes rolled into the back of its head.

However, the battle was far from over. Proton's beast of an Ariados was still standing strong, with a new partner by its side – a vicious and twisted Weavile. Although small, its _extremely_ sharp claws told Ash not to underestimate it. The dark-type flashed its claws before shooting itself at Machoke.

Starmie and Victreebel versus Ariados. Machoke versus Weavile. Paul's pokémon were already knocked out, and he was tending to a very injured Turtwig with several potions. Natalie had recalled Charmander in fear of him being fatally injured from any stray attacks, while Saur kept a good distance from the fight.

Machoke was fast, but Weavile was faster. The ice/dark-type was easily dodging each and every Karate Chop from Machoke and retaliating with Metal Claws and Ice Punches. Machoke looked incredibly tired, what with its battle against Houndoom and then Jolteon and Ariados. It was only a matter of time before the superpower pokémon would fall to Proton's Weavile.

Ash quickly got his attention to the fanny-pack pack in front of him and rummaged through it. It took only five minutes for him to find his, Natalie's and Jack's pokeballs in the fanny-pack and four that were labelled with a sticker that read 'Matt'. Smirking, Ash quickly removed Matthew's pokeballs and zipped the pack close.

"Matthew!" Ash yelled over the din of the battle. The burly teen looked back at Ash with a puzzled expression on his face. "I've got your pokémon. Release them and give Proton hell!"

Matthew grinned as Ash hurled the minimized capsules at him, and enlarged two of them before releasing the contains. "Scyther, Electrode, come on out!"

A green, insectoid creature with sharp blades for arms came forth along with a perfectly spherical, red-and-white pokémon. The Electrode grinned savagely and sparks danced around its spherical body while the Scyther immediately rushed into battle to help its comrades.

With Scyther by its side, Machoke was finally a match against protons vile Weavile. Scyther was easily parrying Weavile's slashes with its blades, giving Machoke a chance to land a few blows on Weavile, much to the dark-type's displeasure. Electrode was helping Victreebel and Starmie, but Ariados was more than a match for the three of them combined. The arachnid was swiftly scuttling out of the way and slowing its opponents down with toxins and String Shots. Starmie's gem was already blinking, signifying its low health.

Ash quickly released Zeus, who bleated in alarm and then snarled when he saw Proton still standing. The Mareep and Saur both looked at their trainer for orders.

"Saur, use Stun Spore on that Ariados," Ash told his starter, "but stay away from it. Zeus, try to paralyze Weavile. Don't let it see you."

Saur and Zeus grunted in affirmation and set off on their targets. Saur made sure to stay a good distance away from Ariados while Zeus tried to find an opening to paralyze Weavile with Thunder Wave.

Saur's bulb shone faintly before shooting a blanket of yellow spores onto Ariados. Victreebel, Starmie and Electrode managed to get away from the spores, which settled on Ariados' segmented body. Ariados twitched its spindly legs, but its movements were slower. Ash smirked. Stun Spore had done its work.

Scyther and Machoke finally managed to defeat Weavile, forcing Proton to recall his unconscious pokémon. The only one that was left was Ariados, who was still putting up a fight against its opponents, but at this rate—

Ash screamed as pain ripped through his body. His eyes wide in terror as he slowly moved his head towards the source of his agony. A sharp, thin horn, leaking clear, potent poison, was dug into his shoulder and he cringed in pain as he saw Ariados' compound eyes staring remorselessly at him. The body screamed further as Ariados painfully removed its horn from his shoulder, scuttling onto the wall with its mouth leaking with poison, and Ash gingerly held his wound.

It had to be Poison Sting which had struck him. His blood began to boil as the venom took over, making his arms go limb. He heard someone scream, but Ash didn't care. His vision turned fuzzy and he dropped to the ground as Ariados quickly knocked out Matthew's Machoke and Misty's Starmie in one single blow.

Ash vaguely remembered hearing Zeus bleat angrily and shine bright as he felt himself dying. A few seconds before he slipped into unconsciousness, he saw a vaguely star-shaped and pink creature enter the chamber, fill it with light and then—

Darkness.

XxXxX

Ash was surprised to find himself still alive after taking such a heavy dosage of Ariados' poison. He found it even more surprising to find himself in the same chamber where they'd fought against the Rockets.

Ash bolted upright and a hand eased him. "Whoa there, Ash. Take it easy."

Ash nauseous as he tasted his own breath, which tasted like a day-old sandwich. "Where…?"

Ash saw the burly form of Matthew grinning at him. "Relax! We're safe. Proton's most likely dead, so we earned some playtime. Anyway, I never knew fairy-types could kick ass."

Ash frowned slightly, still quite uneasy. "What're you—?"

What he saw next took his breath away.

A multitude of Clefairy, Clefable and Cleffa encompassed Ash in the enormous chamber. There were several of each evolutionary stage scattered over the place, glancing occasionally at the humans present in the chamber.

The Cleffa were tiny pink creatures, no bigger than the plushies Ash had back at home. The sight of the _cute_ fairy-types made his heart melt.

The Clefairy were more in number than the Cleffa and their evolved forms; several of them were skipping over the large lake in the center of the chamber, storing moonlight in their two small wings on their back.

The legendary Moon Stone that was the center of attention was shining brighter than ever. Ash couldn't take his eyes off it when he finally took notice of the evolutionary boulder.

"This…" Ash couldn't find words.

"I know," Jack said, suddenly sidling next to the dark-haired boy. "It's amazing."

Natalie appeared on Ash's right, squeezing between him and Matthew. She smiled at Ash and then stared at the fairy-types. "They're so _cute_!"

Ash nodded in agreement before a thought struck him. "Hey, how did you guys manage to save me from that Ariados' poison? I mean, I could practically feel myself dying."

Matthew smirked. "Well, just before you were out cold, this kick-ass Clefable jumped into the scene and completely _destroyed_ Proton and his Ariados. I dunno what happened to him, but I'm pretty sure that fall from the edge of the cliff killed him."

"And?" Ash probed.

"Then several more Clefable just, like, poured into the room and started tending to us," Matthew continued. "The lead Clefable immediately came over to you and healed you up with its voodoo-magic in a jiffy."

 _I would prefer the term 'thaumaturgy' over voodoo-magic, human-Matthew._

A voice entered Ash's head and made him jump a few inches into the air. And though the voice wasn't harsh or bold, but soft and pleasant and warm, like Christmas morning, it still startled him. Ash immediately felt a wave of happiness wash over him as the voice mentally spoke to him and the others.

He turned and saw an ancient Clefable, much bigger than the others, a few inches away from them. Like the others of its evolutionary line, it was smiling, but Ash could make out that its warm, black eyes were judging him. Ash smiled back at it hesitantly, because he didn't know what else to do with a Clefable that could share mental links with others.

Matthew grinned sheepishly. "I keep forgetting."

Ash looked at the aged Clefable with a confused look. "Uh, I'm sorry, but what is this place?"

The Clefable's lips twitched further upwards. _To you it may just be a plain chamber,_ it said, _but to the Clefairy we know it as the Ceremonial Room, our sacred grove._

 _Once every five sun cycles my kind come out here to bow to the will of the Moon Stone,_ it continued. _Over here we welcome the evolution of a few Clefairy into Clefable, chosen by the power of our mighty Moon Stone._

Ash slowly processed what it was saying. By the sounds of it, it seemed like the Cleffa evolutionary line had an entire cult of Moon Stone worshippers insidious Mt Moon, but Ash knew not to question their actions. Pokémon were mysterious things, like Professor Oak kept telling them in Pallet. He didn't want to get onto the Clefable's bad side.

 _You think our actions are silly_ , the elder suddenly said into his mind. _Mere propaganda. But you also know that there is a reason for this. Don't you humans also worship the Creator and his godlings, human-Ash?_

Ash just nodded without understanding a word of what the Clefable was saying. He did go to church when he was younger, but as a trainer he'd given up as much recreation as he could for trainer – except for spending time with Natalie, Jack and his own pokémon—

His pokémon.

Ash frantically began searching for the pokeballs on his belt, and was relieved to count three, but the Clefable eased him down with its mystic energy. _Do not worry, human-Ash,_ the Clefable said. _Your companions are safe. They are quite strong for such young ones._

Ash smirked at that. He was glad someone finally said it.

"Oh!" Ash whipped to face Natalie, who seemed to burst with what she had to say. "I forgot to tell you Ash. Zeus _finally_ decided to evolve midway. He evolved literally the second before you were out cold."

He couldn't help but grin wider at that. He'd been waiting for Zeus to evolve into Flaaffy – he'd noticed the ex-Mareep shedding wool at a much faster pace for the past few days, but he couldn't help but feel slightly bummed out for missing it. In any case, he was happy for finally having two of his friends getting stronger than ever. At this rate, Saur and Zeus would probably leave Delphi in the dust.

Ash fondly played his fingers across the pokeballs along his belt before focusing on the Clefable. "So, what now?" he asked. "Do we have wait for something?"

The Clefable smiled. _We cannot let you go empty handed,_ the elder said. _Not after you helped in protecting our Ceremonial Room and the legendary Moon Stone. As a sign of our gratitude, we shall give you humans each a shard of the Moon Stone as a token of our gratitude._

Matthew grinned. "Cool!" he exclaimed. "Nidorina's gonna be pleased."

Ash wanted to see Matthew's formidable poison-type, but pushed away the thought. He didn't want to seem rude to the Clefable.

 _But first,_ the Clefable said, _our ceremony must begin._

Ash blinked in surprise as the aged Clefable warped away from its spot and appeared on a stone pedestal not to far from the Moon Stone. All the humans in the room – Ash counted all the Rocket-captives present – looked at the Clefable elder, whose body shone brightly. Its warm voice rang out like a clear stream of water in his head:

 _All hail the mighty Moon Stone!_

The myriad of fairy-types quickly stopped what they were doing and circled the Moon Stone in three files – the Cleffa first, then the Clefairy followed by the handful of Clefable. All of a sudden they raised their hands and their eyes glowed pink, chanting as they circled the Moon Stone and swayed their hands in a tribal fashion. Ash and the others huddled close to form a small group as they watched the procession in fascination.

Finally the ancient Clefable raised its hands in the air, eyes burning a luminous pink, and the Moon Stone was suddenly lifted into the air. Ash watched in awe as the Clefable lifted the ridiculously enormous stone in the air with its psychic and thaumaturgic powers before setting it a few inches above the lake in the center.

The moon reflected perfectly on the Moon Stone, which began to glow pink, then blue, then white. Finally, the light exploded softly away from the stone and beams of light fell onto a few of the Clefairy circling it.

 _The Moon Stone has chosen,_ Ash heard the Clefable say. _Chosen kin, the Moon Stone never loses its power to welcome us into our final stage. Step forward and expose yourselves to its undying power!_

The Cleffa in front gave way to the chosen Clefairy, staring at them in awe. Ash was sure they were already thinking about the day that they would evolve into Clefable.

The Clefairy stepped closer to the Moon Stone, then hesitantly pressed their small hands against the Stone. As soon as they touched it, they were set ablaze by a powerful white light, signifying their evolution. Ash watched, marveled, as the chosen Clefairy began to glow even brighter until they evolutionary light was blinding, but Ash still watched, discerning the changes in their shape through the harsh light.

The light finally faded, revealing newly-evolved Clefable in the place of the chosen Clefairy. The Clefable experimentally stretched their arms and examined their bodies, pleased by this transformation.

 _It is done,_ the elder finally said. All the fairy-types and the humans looked at it, awaiting its next words. _Chosen kin, you are now part of the Council. Help nurture our young ones and help them bear fruit so that they may be then next ones to bend to the Moon Stone's will._

The Cleffa line nodded determinedly. Then, the Clefable looked directly at Ash and the others as it spoke.

 _And now, our ceremony ends with this final gift,_ it told the rest of its family. _These humans defended our Room, our Grove, our_ home _. Let this be our token of our appreciation for stopping our Ceremonial Room from being destroyed!_

The Clefable raised its hands once again, seemingly making the time mountain shake. Ash gripped the obsidian rock he was sitting on as the a good chunk of the Moon Stone exploded away from the rest and floated towards the elder. Ash noticed several of the un-chosen Clefairy stare longingly at the large fragment.

The Clefable chanted something in its native tongue, and the fragment of the Moon Stone exploded slowly into several smaller pieces. The separated shards hovered around Clefable in two rings as it floated towards the humans in the room.

 _Here is the final gift._ A Moon Stone shard floated to each trainer. Ash gingerly held the shard, which was as big as both his palms and was still pulsating different colors, although Ash could still make out the pitch-black stone in his hands. _Use it well,_ the ancient Clefable continued. _No human has set their eyes on our Ceremony and the Moon Stone for a long time. Cherish this gift for the rest of your lives._

"Thank you," stuttered Ash, having gotten butterflies in his stomach. He still couldn't believe that he'd not only seen one of the rarest and most elusive pokémon in Kanto but an entire colony of them. And their secret ceremony. And he'd received a shard of the Moon Stone. He was probably the luckiest person in the world today, and Ash thanked any unknown higher power for his situation.

 _No. Thank you, child,_ the Clefable told him. _Thank you for saving us from sheer disaster. May the Creator look over you for the rest of your life._

Ash muttered a word of thanks to the Clefable, followed by the other trainers. The Clefable talked to the rest of its kin in its native tongue, and the Clefairy, Clefable and Cleffa chanted back.

Suddenly the group of trainers was illuminated by a faint white light and Ash was suddenly teleported away. Once the teleportation had ended, Ash couldn't help but double over as a wave of nausea washed over him. It had felt like as if he'd been forced through a thin narrow tube. He immediately made a mental not to say no to teleportation as a method of transportation in the future.

He took into the unfamiliar surroundings. It was much different than the Clefairy's Chamber and more like one of the tunnels they'd been travelling through before he, Natalie and Jack were caught by the Rockets. Ash noticed there were far less trainers than before – maybe they'd been teleported by the Clefable to another destination…?

"Holy Mew," Ash heard Jack exclaim at his right. "What the heck was _that_?! That was most mind-boggling thing I've ever seen!"

Ash pushed himself up and saw the rest of the trainers accompanying him: Natalie, Jack, Paul, Matthew, Misty. Everyone he knew – at least a bit. Matthew was grinning and looking at the Moon Stone shard lasciviously.

"Nidorina's gonna love this," he said to no one in particular. "She's been waiting to evolve for _such a long time_!"

Paul snorted. "Well that was interesting."

Misty glanced at the purple-haired boy, then at the others. "So, where are you guys headed? As far as I know, this is the way to Cerulean City."

Paul grunted. "I'm off to Cerulean City to win my next gym badge," he said. "I've heard that the Sensational Sisters are _pathetically_ weak—" Misty flushed angrily at that, "but there's got to be a reason for them to be allowed to hand out TMs to winning trainers."

He turned to face Ash. "In any case, I would like a battle with you the next time we meet. You managed to take down Brock with just your Ivysaur – and I have a feeling you'd be a decent opponent against my team."

With that, Paul walked away after nodding at Misty and Matthew. Jack simply stared after the boy several moments before shaking his head and shrugging.

"I guess we'd better hit the road, too," he told Jack and Natalie. "I wanna reach Cerulean as quickly as possible. Today was a lot for my mind."

"Agreed," Misty said, shouldering her backpack. She grinned dangerously at Ash, Natalie and Jack. "Anyway, I'll be waiting for you at the Cerulean Gym – I want to see if you three are really cut for the Conference."

Misty turned and left, leaving a confused Ash in her wake. Matthew smirked at the trio of trainers. "Don't worry," he told them. "You'll get what she's saying once you challenge the Sisters."

Matthew yawned. "It was good meeting y'all, but I really need to get going. Mum's going to kill me if I'm late and Fearow needs to stretch his wings. So…this is goodbye, I guess?"

Ash muttered goodbye back at Matthew and the teenager left in a flash, leaving the three alone in the tunnel. They stared at each other for some time before Jack shouldered his backpack, and the three of them decided to leave.

Natalie and Jack let Ash take his own time as they walked along the tunnel, walking several meters ahead of the dark-haired boy. The after-effects of Ariados' was still making him nauseous and he took slow steps as he traced his companions' footsteps.

Ash grimaced as he rubbed his right shoulder. Although the elder of the Clefairy colony had healed him, it still ached from the poisonous arachnid. That Ariados was a monster…

Ash stopped abruptly as he sensed someone – or something – a few paces behind him. He frowned. He was in no mood to battle any wild pokémon; his pokémon were still worn out from the battle against the Rockets. Ash whipped around—

A Clefairy stood a few feet behind him. The fairy-type was shrouded in darkness and the only way Ash had recognized the creature was because its vague body shape. Ash nervously took a step towards, half expecting the Clefairy to run away, but the fairy pokémon didn't move – not even a bit. Its eyes were determined for some reason; it wasn't afraid.

"Are you lost, little one?" Ash told it. He smirked as the way he talked reminded him of the Clefable elder. "Uh, honestly…" He scratched the back of head. "I don't know the way back to your colony, so—"

He stopped abruptly as the Clefairy took a determined step and let out a deep breath. Ash blinked in sheer shock Ash Clefairy tapped an empty pokeball on Ash's belt in one smooth move and was sucked into the confines of the pokeball. The sphere didn't even shake once which meant that Clefairy didn't struggle at all as it was put into suspended animation.

Ash didn't know what to do. A Clefairy was in a pokeball on his belt… This had to be the single most mind-blowing day in his entire life. He couldn't he but feel truly blessed. Ash helplessly wondered what to do but Jack's voice jarred him back to reality.

"Yo! Ash! You coming or what?"

"I just tripped," Ash lied. "I'm coming in a sec." he thought about telling Jack and Natalie about what had just happened, but decided against it. He shrugged.

Maybe he'd surprise them in the morning.

XxXxX

 **Phew! We're finally done here! I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Like I said in the previous one, I brought out the surprises: Saur and Zeus evolved, and Ash got a Clefairy! I absolutely adore Clefairy. I remember when I played FireRed I searched for one for half an hour, and when I did I got so excited that I didn't even save the game :( Anyway, I hope you all liked the inclusion of Clefairy on Ash's team, plus the evolution of Saur and Zeus.**

 **Yes, Paul finally makes an appearance. I tried not to make him as cold and annoying as he was in the anime, but he's still pretty mature for his age. Misty makes an appearance, along with a few CoDs I made up along the way.**

 **The battle against Proton might seem one-sided, but Proton was facing an experienced gym leader and an experienced trainer. The gym leaders here are much more competent than the way the anime made them out to be, and are more like their game selves. Brock has his parents, Misty's a better trainer, Surge is not much of a dick, etc. Stuff like that.**

 **Now, on to the review responses for the last chapter:**

 **Dragonsrule18: This is absolutely amazing and I'm definitely favoriting this lovely fic and adding it to my community! I loved the banter between the friends and the personalities of the Pokemon! You have them written really well! Will Ash still get Charmander like he did in the anime?**

 _-Thanks a lot! As for getting Charmander, it's most probably a no, although I might be giving it to someone else in the fic :)_

 **PraetorFable: Great chapter. Can't wait for more! I've been writing my own story which is very similar to this for a while, so this is super inspiring. Although it won't be out for a while, haha. I'm working on too many other at the moment. :)**

 _-The fact that I'm inspiring someone is really flattering. Anyway, I'll be waiting for you to publish your own story, and I hope it comes out well._

 **MechaRex 2.0: Nice! This is now one of my favourite pokemon fics. Please update soon!**

 **Before I leave, I have a few questions. Will Ash get a steel-type or a fairy-type pokemon? He's never got one of them in the entire series. Will he also get a dragon-type in Kanto? As for Ash's water-type, you could give him a Psyduck that could evolve into a powerful Golduck, but I guess he'll have a ton of problems with a dopey Psyduck by his side XD**

 _-Thus chapter answered your first question! About the steel-type, Ash will get one but in the future. As for his water-type pokémon, I've already decided his capture, although the idea of him capturing a Psyduck is quite funny!_

 **Waberjack: Nice start to the story! Seems like they had a lot of advantages for rookie trainers with the absurd amount of tms Ash received and their starters move pool but that's ok. Their teams seem to be varied and that's cool because it's tiring seeing the same Pokémon in every fic. Keep up the good work!**

 _-I guess I overdid it with the egg moves, but I guess it's okay. Plus I wanted Ash to have a head start on TMs, which is why I had them given to him. As for the last part, I agree wholly. I'm glad that you found my story as original!_

 **That's all for the review responses. Chapter four will probably be published next month. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review!**


	4. Cerulean Blue

**A/N: Please make sure to read the author's note below, as it contains something(s) important. Anyway, enjoy chapter four!**

 **Edit: After a long time of consideration, I decided to change Poliwag with Psyduck. Challenger's Darkfire1220 has already done a member of the Poliwag line (a.k.a Douse, who is my favourite pokémon after Sobek) and I feel like I'm stealing his/her(?) idea. Psyduck seems more original even though there was a Golduck included in Traveller, albeit for a short time.**

XxXxX

 _Chapter Four: Cerulean Blue_

Ash spent the rest of the day resting in his sleeping bag. All of them were dead tired from the day's events, and none of the others complained about Ash's suggestion. As quickly as they could, they'd rolled out their sleeping bags and curled up right on the spot.

They kept their pokémon in their pokeballs. The three had decided to heal them up the next morning as soon as possible – their pokémon were most probably still distressed due to the previous events and none of them wanted to take the trouble of calming him down.

While Natalie and Jack slept immediately, Ash stayed awake for quite some time. He still didn't know what to make out of the Clefairy he'd captured. His best guess was that the fairy-type had wanted to go out and see the world and had chosen him to be its trainer.

Not that he complained. He was incredibly happy that he had a Clefairy on his team. It was like capturing a Dratini in the wild; Clefairy were along the same vein as Dratini in terms of rarity.

He shrugged. He'd introduce it to the rest of his family tomorrow, and he couldn't wait to see the looks on Natalie's and Jack's faces when he would release it. In the meantime, he decided to catch up on his sleep. Giving a huge yawn and ignoring his aching shoulder, Ash drifted off into the realm of unconsciousness.

XxXxX

The next morning, Ash, Natalie and Jack woke up with new vigour. According to his pokégear, it was half past noon, meaning that they'd slept for over twelve hours. Ash recoiled involuntarily as he took a whiff of his clothes – yuck. He made a mental note to give his clothes a thorough wash when he would reach Cerulean.

While they let their food cook, the trio let loose their pokémon, who burst forth in a rush of white light. All of them looked pretty worn out and the trainers immediately set to work.

Ash took a super potion from his medicine pouch and sprayed it over Saur's numerous bruises. The saurian winced as the medicine touched his wounds, but relaxed once the hurt marks healed quickly. Ash patted the Ivysaur on the head and turned his attention to the rest of his team.

Delphi was perfectly fine since she hadn't participated in the brutal battle against the Rockets. Ash just sprayed a small amount of a normal potion on her, making her as good as new. The Natu chirped and hopped onto his shoulder, nipping Ash's ear affectionately.

Ash grinned as he tended to the newly-evolved Flaaffy in front of him. He'd been waiting to inspect Zeus ever since he'd heard the news about him yesterday. His skin had changed from blue to a soft pink and become more rubbery, and a white man of wool covered his head and upper body. His tail had lengthened and the orb on the tip had changed from orange to blue.

Ash sprayed the super potions over the Flaaffy fondly. Zeus' eyes were half open as the wounds and bruises on his body cleared out due to the effects of the healing potion. Within a minute, Zeus was much better off than before and stood up on his hind legs, examining his body.

Ash could see Natalie and Jack eyeing Zeus enviously. By now neither of their pokémon had evolved, while Ash had two evolved pokémon with him. He allowed himself a smug smile and turned his attention to Zeus.

"How do you feel, Zeus?" Ash asked him. The Flaaffy snapped towards Ash and bleated happily. He experimentally electrified his body with a Charge and then grunted when the electricity subsided.

Ash snorted when he saw Zeus boastfully jab at the air. "Yeah, yeah," he said with a roll of his eyes. "Don't forget that Saur's evolved, too. If you keep your guard down, I'll make him whip you back into shape."

Zeus harrumphed. Like that overgrown bulb was really a match for him! He'd show the Ivysaur his place if it was the last thing he'd do.

"Anyway," Ash said suddenly, grabbing everyone's attention, human and pokémon alike, "I got someone to introduce you to." He tapped Clefairy's pokeball on his belt.

"Who?" Jack asked, puzzled. He took a swig from his flask of water. "What, did you catch a Zubat or someth—"

Jack sprayed Natalie in the face with water when Ash let the capture loose.

"Wh-what!" Jack choked out in shock, thumping his chest repeatedly. His face was absolutely comical and made Ash want to burst out laughing.

"Jack, you idiot!" Natalie screamed, examining her wet clothes. Jack ignored her.

"When did you catch a Clefairy?!" he continued. "We were with you the whole time!"

Ash didn't say anything, but allowed himself a ghost of a smile on his face. Clefairy was looking at the others in confusion, obviously not recognising any of them.

"Wait..." Natalie narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "You didn't steal one when we were with the Clefable's colony, did you?"

"I didn't steal it!" Ash replied frantically. "I just..."

When Ash finished his story, the others were even more flabbergasted.

"You mean it just came with you?!" Jack muttered, incredulous. "Like, _la-di-da, I just happened to come across a random trainer I don't know but I wanna travel with him!_ "

"Yeah," Ash said, "something like that."

Clefairy looked at Jack curiously, then turned around in confusion. Ash guessed it didn't know he was traveling with these people.

"Hey, Clefairy," Ash told it. "Do you remember me? You got yourself captured last night."

Clefairy nodded and rolled its eyes like that was obvious. Ash continued. "Well, my name's Ash Ketchum. I'm on my way to become the strongest pokémon trainer the world. Do you want to help me in my quest?"

The Clefairy smiled, touched by the child's consideration. It nodded, confirming Ash's belief that it wanted to go out and explore the world, and he grinned.

"Great!" he exclaimed. "Alright, let me introduce you to the rest of my team. This is Saur—" he pointed at the Ivysaur, who grunted and raised a vine in acknowledgement, "Delphi—'" the little Natu chirped in welcome, and Clefairy smiled at her, "and this is Zeus." Clefairy exclaimed something happily in its native tongue and Zeus bleated at it in response.

"This is it for now," he told Clefairy once he was done introducing everyone else, "but we'll keep adding on as we keep travelling. Fine?"

Ash then took out his pokédex and scanned Clefairy. He wanted to assess it properly before he began training it. He pointed the lens at an oblivious Clefairy, and a few seconds later the instrument began spouting out information about it.

 _Clefairy, the fairy pokémon,_ it said. Ash rolled his eyes at its species name – the person who classified it must've been really bored to think of something so unoriginal. _The moonlight that it stores in the wings on its back give it the ability to float in mid-air. The more moonlight it stores, the healthier it is._

 _This Clefairy is female and knows the moves: Disarming Voice, Pound, Double Slap, Sing, Defence Curl, Magical Leaf, Sweet Kiss, Aromatherapy, and Wake-Up Slap. Its ability is Magic Guard, which prevents it from indirect damage._

Clefairy seemed pretty powerful. She knew a variety of moves, ranging from special to physical to status attacks. Pretty soon, Clefairy would become an invaluable asset on his team.

Plus, he even had the Moon Stone shard which the Clefable had given him. According to it, the shard was different than other moon stones – it made the pokémon far stronger after evolution and could be used as many times as a person wanted.

Ash couldn't wait to unlock her dragon-slaying powers.

"Say, do you want a nickname, Clefairy?" he asked her. "Everybody else has one."

Clefairy thought for a few seconds before she nodded. Ash found it hard to list off names for Clefairy; he wanted something to suit her gentle personality, and he finally hit one that definitely fit her.

"Luna."

Her eyes glimmered when she heard the name and Ash nodded in agreement. Luna was a name that really suited her, what with Clefairy's thaumaturgy and cosmic manipulation. He couldn't think of an aggressive name for such a gentle creature, and he couldn't think of her in any other way.

"Okay, Luna, why don't you go spend some time with the others till we serve breakfast?" Ash suggested.

While Ash and Natalie went to stir the food, the newly dubbed Luna trilled in delight and floated off to inspect the rest of her new family. Ash noticed her shying away from Saur for some inexplicable reason, leaving the Ivysaur perplexed. The Clefairy circled Saur a good distance away from him and leaned a bit forward to sniff his pink bud before moving on the next person on the team.

Still, Luna held the one known as Saur in high regard, even though she wasn't fond of his poisons. It was clear with the way her behaved that he was the leader of their pack and her new trainer's first friend. She decided that eventually she would warm up to him and lessen her distaste for poison-spewing creatures.

Luna had a far better interaction with Zeus. The newly-evolved electric-type talked to Luna in a series of bleat while she spoke back in her native tongue. The fairy moved around the Flaaffy for a moment before she experimentally poked his back. She jumped back when she received a small electric shock in return and Zeus snickered in response. Luna eyed him curiously, then smiled and moved on to Delphi.

After spending just a few seconds with the Natu, Luna and Delphi absolutely free _fawned_ over each other. Delphi was finally happy that there was another girl on the team; she was sick and tired of Saur and Zeus, who simply wanted to train all day. And their eating habits! Delphi sure was glad that Luna had come into the team.

The bird finally had a sister – one that could match her fighting spirit and her thirst to grow stronger.

Ash chuckled as Delphi and Luna chatted animatedly, the former waving her stubby wings and the latter her short arms. He was sure that the two girls would've kept talking if it weren't for him gaining everyone's attention.

While Natalie served food into three plates, Jack and Ash pulled out several tins of pokémon food for their friends. All their pokémon waddled over when the two trainers opened the tins and handed two to each pokémon. They immediately formed their own groups and began gobbling down the nutrient-filled pellets.

Ash made a note to give Zeus more food than the rest. Increased hunger was a normal quirk for any newly-evolved pokémon, and he wouldn't be surprised if Zeus ate twice as much on his first day as a Flaaffy. In any case, it didn't matter much to the others. Saur mostly depended on photosynthesis for nutrition and only ate the food pellets for the extra nutrients. Delphi detested the pokémon food (they weren't noted for their taste) and ate mostly berries from Ash's stock.

When Ash first gave Luna her food, she took one whiff of it and recoiled. Ash smirked at that, and then fished out a bowlful of berries from his pouch, but the Clefairy immediately separated the Liechi berries from the rest and began wolfing them down. Ash held back a snort at that, and didn't see Delphi glaring at him. He didn't allow her to have so many berries like that!

Luna sat next to Ash throughout the entire breakfast. Ash kept talking to her – he wanted her to have a clear picture about his goals and his expectations – the Clefairy listened attentively to everything he had to say. From the way he talked, Luna could make out that he was kind, honest, pure-hearted, courageous – the ideal human. She had made the right choice in choosing her human.

Pretty soon they were done with their hearty breakfast. Ash, Jack and Natalie cleaned all their dishes and utensils and threw the empty tins of pokémon food in a trash bag. They got their hands cleaned before recalling their pokémon and hitting the road.

Ash got into many battles as they made their way to Cerulean, although he used mainly Zeus and Luna in battles. He was still pumped that Zeus had evolved and he'd caught a Clefairy, so he put both of them to the test. Zeus was much stronger than before and had learnt two new moves: Take Down and Electro Ball. Take Down was just a much more powerful version of Tackle, and although it had more power it also gave the user high recoil damage. Plus, Ash figured he'd have learnt it eventually, what with practising Wild Charge so much. Ash didn't exactly know what Electro Ball was, but he quickly figured out that it was just an electric-version of Energy Ball.

Luna was a huge surprise, though. Most people thought that Clefairy were timid creatures, but Luna proved all of them wrong. She had a Double Slap that made him swear never to get onto the bad side of girls and her Pound was pretty decent too. She had good control over all her moves as far as Ash could judge. Luna was probably the strongest on his team right now.

Her Magical Leaf got Ash thinking. Her control over the attack was really good, so he decided to ask her to help Saur in learning it. Magical Leaf was an egg move for Saur and the grass-type was still finding it difficult to master all of them. The only hindrance was that Luna wasn't very fond of Saur and wouldn't like being told to work with him. As far as Ash knew, Saur hadn't done anything to hurt Luna, but it must be with him being a part poison-type.

Only time would tell.

Finally, after a four-hour long walk, Ash and the others saw civilization up ahead of them. Although it had been only a day since they'd been in Mt Moon, Ash was itching to dive into a warm, cosy bed for once. Even the others were excited when the first saw the low buildings that were scattered around the mass of land that was known as Cerulean City.

Jack leaned on the wooden sign that read 'Cerulean City – 1.0 kilometres ahead'. Ash, however, wasn't focused on that. A smaller inscription, written in the lower corner of the sign, caught his attention.

"What's this?" Ash squinted and leaned to the sign, determined to read the writing. He didn't know why it brought so much curiosity to him, but nevertheless he took a better look.

 _Gary was here. Ash is a loser._

Jack and Natalie burst out laughing when they too saw what was written on the sign. With a surge of newfound rage and energy, Ash jumped back and made a mad dash for Cerulean City.

"I'm gonna get that Gary if it's the last thing I do," Ash growled to himself as he sprinted to Cerulean, leaving everybody else in the dust.

XxXxX

 _Click_.

Ash grinned as the videophone's screen blinked to life, showcasing his mother. "Hi, Mom!"

He could practically feel his mother's wide smile once she saw he son on the other end of the line. "Hi, Ashy! You haven't called me since Pewter!"

"Well, Mt Moon has pretty bad reception," Ash replied with a cheeky grin.

His mom laughed at that. "So, how has your journey been? And how's your Bulbasaur been since I last saw him?"

"Great!" he remarked. "Saur evolved during our battle against Brock – wait, I'll send him out right now," he added, taking out the pokeball on his belt.

Saur growled happily at his trainer when he came out. Ash grunted a he struggled to lift the saurian up, but eventually managed to do it. "Here he is!"

Saur cocked his head curiously when he saw Delia on the videophone's screen. "Saur, you remember my mom, right?" he told him. "You met her back in Professor Oak's lab."

Saur's scarlet eyes lit up in recognition and he waved a vine happily at Delia in a form of greeting. Ash's mother smiled at the grass-type. "That's nice! I'm happy to hear he's doing well. Have you caught any other?"

"Mhmm." Ash nodded. "On route one, I got a Natu – I named her Delphi – and a Mareep-now-Flaaffy whose name is Zeus."

Ash saved Luna for the last. He'd throw the surprise on her when she'd ask about Mt Moon.

"You mean your Mareep evolved?"

"Yep," Ash confirmed. "He's a lot stronger now, but I've given him to Nurse Joy for a check-up."

Delia looked thoughtful. Then she smiled at Ash again. "Anyway, how was Mt Moon?"

"Mt Moon was fine," he said, glossing over the encounter with the Clefairy colony and Team Rocket. "We made it through by night, though."

"Did you see any Clefairy?"

Ash smirked. "I _caught_ one."

His mother went slack-jawed. " _What_."

"I'm serious!" he exclaimed hastily. "You can ask Professor Oak if you want! He'll check up his directory and tell you the truth in no time!"

Delia looked excited. "Can I see it?"

Ash dutifully obliged. In one toss, Luna was out of her pokeball and inside the Pokémon Centre. Ash saw many heads turn in Luna's direction, but the Clefairy didn't notice them. Ash ignored the onlookers.

Delia's eyes widened and she practically squealed in delight as she saw the Clefairy next to her son. "Oh, my! She's so _pretty_!"

"Gee, Mom, I hope you don't have a fit," Ash teased.

"Stop it, you," his mom scoffed. "All I can say right now is that I can't wait for you to get back home! You've got quite the family at your disposal!"

Ash chuckled. "How are Natalie and Jack, by the way?" his mother asked next.

Ash's conversation with Delia went on for another thirty minutes before Ash heard the person behind him tap her foot on the floor impatiently. "Gotta go, Mom," Ash told her. "I anyway have to battle Misty and go collect Zeus. I'll call you before I leave Cerulean, though!"

"Okay," Delia said. "Bye, sweetie! Take care and good luck!"

Ash said goodbye one last time before disconnecting the call. The trainer behind him heaved a sigh of relief and Ash frowned, turning back to stare at her with an annoyed expression on his face, only to find her eyeing Luna greedily. Ash shot her one last dirty look before moving to the Centre's front desk.

"I'm here to receive one Flaaffy, please," he told the nurse at the desk. Nurse Joy nodded and handed over a scratched pokeball while never removing her eyes from the computer screen for one second. Ash murmured thanks before moving away.

Ash arrived at the couch where Natalie and Jack were sitting. Jack was drumming his fingers on the coffee table while Natalie was browsing through her pokédex.

Immediately, he felt his heart sink. They'd made a plan back in Pallet Town – a plan to travel together till Cerulean City and go their separate ways, having their own journeys.

How could it be so soon that he was parting ways with two of his best friends?

"So..." Ash removed the heartiness from his voice. "What are your next plans?"

Natalie looked up from her pokédex. "I'm thinking of sticking around Cerulean for some more time. I don't think my pokémon are ready for the Sisters, even though I do have Starburst...My Shroomish," she explained on seeing Ash's confused expression. "According to this thing, there are a few sections of the Kanto Power Plant which are open to the public, so I'm going to be in search for an electric-type over there. After that, I'll challenge the Sisters and head towards Rock Tunnel," she finished.

"Sounds like a good plan," Jack muttered thoughtfully after a few seconds. He glanced at Ash. "What about you, Ash?"

Ash shrugged. "I'll train a bit and then challenge the Cerulean Gym later today. Then, I'll head off to Vermillion."

"Same here," Jack voiced, "Except I'll be going off to Celadon City. I've heard Lt Surge is a pretty nasty fighter."

Ash nodded at that. He'd heard of Lt Surge – one of the most powerful gym leaders of Kanto, right up with Sabrina and Blaine and Giovanni. It was a good thing that he followed the same system as most of the others – having a team set up according to the number of badges a trainer had – or else many league competitors would find it hard to wind up in the Indigo Conference. The gym leader was notoriously famous for being a hardened war hero back in the Kanto-Johto Civil War, and he still used raw power and offense in battles with his electric-type pokémon. He was a force to be reckoned with.

Jack shuddered. "I really don't think I'm cut out for Surge right now. I'd rather battle people like Erika."

An awkward silence filled the air for several minutes. Then Natalie got up, and the other two followed suit.

"Well, it's was great travelling with you two," she said. Then she tackled them into a hug. "Don't forget to keep in touch!"

Ash and Jack hugged her back, and the three of them received quite a lot of funny stares. Natalie left, and then Jack, leaving Ash alone.

Ash forced a sigh. It was good till it lasted, but now he was on his own. No more distractions. Just him and his family till the Conference came.

And he'd show them.

XxXxX

Ash quickly laid out his plans once he was done changing his clothes. He'd spent quite a lot of time in the shower (of course, he'd cleaned his pokémon too) and was extremely refreshed when he came out. Zeus was curled up on the bed, Delphi was perched on his shoulder, Saur was resting near the window to absorb the most sunlight while Luna burrowed into him.

First he would do a bit of training. There wasn't a Battle Club in Cerulean, and he didn't want to keep training in the fields behind the Pokémon Centre, so he would travel north of the city in search of trainers. He'd heard from locals that the Nugget Bridge – a fifty-foot wide gold-plated bridge which connected the city to a sea inlet called Cerulean Cape, was filled with trainers all the time and was a good fishing spot for water-type pokémon. His friends were now refreshed and eager for battles. The trainers he'd encountered on the way from Mt Moon were pathetically weak and not worth his time.

He also wanted a water-type pokémon on his team, and Cerulean City was a great place to catch one. He'd just have a borrow a fishing rod from somewhere before setting off in search for one, though.

After that he'd rest for some time and the hit the gym. He was eager to see the Cascade Badge in his badge case and he was one-hundred percent sure that he and his pokémon would win it.

Since it wouldn't make sense to take on the road to Vermillion, he would do that the very next day. He didn't want to tire out his friends and, if things would work out the way he wanted, they would earn their playtime.

With that, Ash rose from his bed, and the others (except for Delphi) were recalled. He shouldered his backpack and made a move for Cerulean Cape, determined to get work done.

XxXxX

Nugget Bridge was, in fact, a _great_ place to battle trainers. Ash wouldn't be surprised if the bridge produced trainers by itself for Ash to battle.

In fact, the first time Ash saw the sheer number of trainers hanging around the golden bridge he wheeled back around and bought some revives and potions at the mart. He didn't want his pokémon to have a chance of getting badly hurt or something, however strong he knew they were.

He and his friends had gotten into countless battles by the way, with only one loss against a vastly experienced pokémon trainer who had four badges at his arsenal. Although the outcome was the other trainer winning, Ash knew that his own pokémon had done pretty well against such a strong opponent.

It was an odd feeling, losing, but Ash shrugged it off. It was just one of the many facts of life.

After a good amount of battles, he'd decided to hunt for a water-type pokémon. He didn't want all the trainers defeated before he got any time to train if, so he decided that now was the best time to catch one. He stopped at one of the designated fishing spots on the giant bridge, took out his rented fishing rod and got to work.

Within five seconds, however, he felt the incredible urge to get up. Fishing was bo-ring. He'd now realised that the ads on TV, which showed a rookie trainer catching stuff like Squirtle and Psyduck, were just to scam ten-year-olds into becoming new trainers and bring profit to the League. It was only a minute before the blazing hot sun wanted him to go back to the city and have a nice, double sundae with extra ice cream and never come back.

"Please, please, _please_ ," he chanted as the pokeball at the end of the line bobbed on the calm waters. "I'll be happy even if you give me a Magikarp...Oh, please..."

And his prayers were answered, this time only a little too much. Ash felt a rise of hope and pulled the line back with a surge of new energy, only to find a Magikarp flopping on the hook.

"I didn't mean a _literal_ Magikarp," he grumbled, unhooking the fish and discarding it back into the calm waters. He scowled when he heard Delphi trilling in glee at her trainer's predicament. At least now he knew how long it would take to catch something. He decided to keep the rod standing by itself between his legs while he passed the time on his pokédex.

Things immediately went wrong once again. This time a catch hooked onto the line within seconds, and Ash was busy playing with his trainer ID to notice the tugging until the rod itself was pulled free from his loose grip. Ash let out a yelp of delight as he saw the old fishing rod being dragged away from him by a distinct pink creature – a Slowpoke.

When nothing else came to his mind, his friends did. "Saur, pull that rod free with your vines! I need it back!"

The boy watched as the saurian appeared in a flash a growled threateningly before lashing out at the dragged rod with his thick, green tentacles. Right now, Ash didn't care if the Slowpoke went away or not – he just wanted the rod back. The fishing shack had specifically told him that "any damages to the goods and services provided will incur a steady fee of one thousand pokédollars".

And that was pretty steep considering the fact that he'd pain only two-hundred to rent it. He kept looking as the Slowpoke and Saur were locked in a game of tug, until finally Saur won and he pulled the vine free with all his might – which, granted, was a lot. He saw the Slowpoke swimming farther away with and Saur turned back to his trainer with a smug expression on his face.

" _Great_ work, Saur!" Ash praised, petting the Ivysaur, and Delphi too got into the action. Saur huffed in happiness. "You saved my life."

He was about to recall his pokémon, but decided against it at the last second. "Why don't you stay out here with Delphi?" he suggested. "It'll be a lot better for the both of us and I won't have to waste any time choosing when I finally catch something worthwhile."

The next ten minutes felt like a year. Delphi at least had something to do, what with staring mysteriously into the distance, but Ash and Saur were downright impatient. Aside from the Magikarp and the Slowpoke, he hasn't really found anything. Ash kept holding the rod in front of him. The only question was how much time.

Then, after what felt like an eternity, he found something powerful tugging at the line. Ash and the unknown creature were locked in a battle for dominance, but he wasn't letting go. He didn't care if it was a Gyarados or a Sharpedo, because he was going to _pull that thing up._

Then Ash received one last rush of energy and it was all over. He glimpsed yellow skin and a wide bill as whatever was on the other end of the line burst out of the water, then a jet of water was fired at him. It was only because of Saur that he was saved from the high-pressure jet of water that came next.

The Ivysaur grabbed Ash by the collar and pulled his trainer down roughly, narrowly saving him from the Water Gun which soared a good distance and the fizzled out. After that was done, the grass-type type turned to glare at whoever had the _audacity_ to attack his trainer, but he misjudged his opponent by a long shot.

Ash immediately recognised the tiny creature by the dopey expression on its face – Psyduck. It was the primary stage of the Psyduck line (duh), which could later evolve into Golduck. Ash hadn't considered catching one, mostly since they were considered as pretty clueless creatures, but their kind were known to unleash massive bursts of psychic energy from time to time without being psychic-types on the first place. Plus the possibility of waiting a long time for another catch made him think again.

"Delphi, you take this one." The Natu hopped off his shoulder, eager for a battle. "Saur, keep your vines at the ready. If it tries to run away, grab it."

The Psyduck cocked its head curiously at that, but the way its eyes narrowed signified that it knew what situation it was in. Ash grinned at its eagerness to battle. Maybe he'd got a good catch, after all.

"Night Shade," he said tersely. Delphi fired a beam of black energy from her glowing eyes. The Psyduck dodged it, however, and retaliated with a high-velocity Water Gun from its wide bill.

"Teleport," Ash ordered next. Ash himself jumped away when the jet of water missed Delphi and headed straight for him, missing him by inches. He winced. That would've been a nasty mess.

Psyduck easily recovered, however, and spat another jet of water at Delphi. The bird squawked and easily fluttered away from the Water Gun, then hopped back to the ground for Ash's next order.

He decided to try something new. "Ominous Wind!"

Delphi opened her beak and exhaled a stream of purple, ghostly wind at her opponent. Psyduck quacked as it tumbled away from the force of the winds and received a sharp blast of ghostly energy from the gust.

Nevertheless, it got back up, more fired-up than ever. Just as Delphi landed back on the ground, it let loose a Water Gun that blasted the Natu head on. Delphi squeaked angrily at the force of the attack and teleported back, soaking wet.

Delphi squawked and let loose a guttural cry before letting loose a Shadow Ball at Psyduck. The sphere of ominous energy flew so fast at it that the water-type couldn't even widen its eyes when the Shadow Ball impacted.

Ash grinned. "Okay, wrap this up with another Shadow Ball!"

Psyduck dropped down like a sack of potatoes when the next Shadow Ball hit it and blasted it a good feet away. Ash grabbed an empty pokeball and hurled it at the water-type.

The trainer, Saur and Delphi watched with baited breath as the pokeball kept shaking and twitching for fifteen seconds straight. Ash couldn't believe how resilient Psyduck was, but it finally gave up and the pokeball clicked.

"Gotcha."

Saur quickly snagged the pokeball from the ground and gave it to Ash. Ash grinned at him and then turned his attention to Delphi. "You did great, girl. You've earned your share of Chesto berries."

Delphi trilled in happiness and hopped back on Ash's shoulder. He pulled out an Oran berry and offered it to the bird, allowing her to recover her energy a little.

With that, Ash recalled Saur and stuffed the rod into his backpack before continuing on. There were a lot of trainers still left to defeat.

XxXxX

Ash watched as Luna faced off their opponent's Venonat, which had surprisingly put up more a fight than he'd expected it to. It was giving Luna a tough time by stopping the Clefairy in her tracks with Disable and attacking with Psybeams and Confusions, but the fairy-type was holding her own. She kept smacking Venonat with her nasty Pound attack whenever it came close or letting loose a flurry of fast-flying leaves that kept slashing Venonat no matter how well it tried to dodge it.

"Psybeam!" the other trainer called out. Venonat immediately responses by shooting a weak multi-coloured beam of psychic energy at Luna, who easily dodged it.

Ash saw Venonat tense up for another Psybeam and decided to command Luna. "Magical Leaf."

Luna spun her body and scattered glowing, razor-sharp leaves at Venonat. The timid creature shrieked as the leaves slashed its body and pushed it a good distance away.

"Tackle!" Venonat's trainer roared.

"Sing," he ordered, making up his mind to wrap up this battle. "Put it to sleep."

Wasting no time, Luna murmured a centralised lullaby in Venonat's direction. The chant quickly forced it into a slumber and Venonat came to a grinding halt.

"Wake-Up Slap!"

Luna's right hand glowed white and instantly grew to thrice its original size and ruthlessly slapped Venonat with it. Venonat instantly woke up with wide eyes and then went out cold a split-second second later due to the force of the attack.

The trainer quickly recalled his poor bug-type and handed over the prize money to Ash. He looked pale – maybe he hadn't expected an innocent-looking creature such a Luna to thrash his pokémon so soundly. Whatever the case, he gave Ash the prize money and scarpered quickly.

Ash knelt now and nuzzled Luna on the head. The Clefairy hummed pleasantly as her trainer praised her. "You were great, Luna. At this rate you'll leave the others in the dust!"

Luna trilled once again and allowed her trainer to put her back in her pokeball. Ash stretched, then continued in pursuit of trainers on Route 25.

There weren't as many trainers on Route 25 as there were on 24, just couples hanging and making out. Ash grimaced whenever he saw one; couldn't they do that stuff at home?

So far, he spent time challenging as many trainers as he could to rack up both experience for his pokémon and money. He needed all the cash he could get his hands on so that he could purchase some TMs in Celadon City's famous departmental store. All of the trainers were rather weak, but a few of them put up quite a challenge. Ash nearly lost to some guy named AJ who had a really strong Sandshrew, but Saur took care of it.

As he walked under the blazing heat of the afternoon sun, Ash wondered how the others were doing. Had Jack won his battle against the Sisters? Did Natalie finally capture the electric-type she wanted? Most of all he wondered where Gary. He hadn't seen his tall rival since Pallet Town. Wow. That seemed like a very long time ago.

Nevertheless, he was sure Gary was training hard and had captured a myriad of pokémon just to imitate his elder brother, Blue. In any case, the next time he'd see him, Ash would challenge Gary to a battle. He wanted to see how strong his rival had finally gotten after a mo—

"Holy crap! Look who it is!"

Ash flinched as he heard a very familiar voice up ahead of him. He snorted. Speak of the devil.

"Ashy-boy!" Gary exclaimed in pure surprise and glee. He had his hands in his pockets as he swaggered to Ash, and a large, indigo turtle next to him with a similar cocky expression. Ash immediately registered it as a Wartortle – the evolved form of Gary's starter. "Long time no see!"

"It's nice to see you too," Ash replied, smirking. "I was just thinking about you."

"Aww," Gary whined. "Did ickle Ashy-boy miss his nice, goody rival?"

Ash snorted and rolled his eyes. "No, I was just wondering whether you were still sore about that loss back at the professor's lab."

"In your dreams," his rival sneered back. "Anyway, wat'cha doin'? How many gym badges you got?"

"One," Ash answered.

Gary immediately turned shocked. " _One_?" Gary blasted. "What're you, a loser or something?! I'd've expected something like this from Jack or someone of his calibre! I'm ashamed to call you my rival! How could you lose to those pathetic trio of girls?! Ugh! How—"

"Chillax, Gary!" Ash interrupted hastily. "I didn't lose against the Sensational Sisters or something! I haven't even challenged them yet!"

Gary immediately stopped ranting. "What?"

"Yes," he said patiently. "I only defeated Brock by now. We – Jack, Natalie and I – reached Cerulean today itself."

Gary's expression cleared. "Oh. That makes sense."

He then smirked. "Still, I expected better from you, though I suppose that Jackass must've slowed you down," he said.

"How many badges do you have?" Ash shot at him.

"Three," his rival said smugly. "Yeah, I defeated Brock and that Daisy girl on my first try, but Surge was tough. He's got a kickass Raichu. I had to get a rematch with him."

Ash frowned at that. If Gary found Surge a challenging opponent, then Ash had to admit that the decorated war hero was no piece of cake. His pokémon couldn't take it easy on Surge.

Then something Gary said confused him. "Wait...If you defeated Surge, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be heading to Saffron or something?"

It was Gary's chance to be confused. "Didn't Gramps tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

Gary smirked. He was very good at doing that. "Oh, it's the best thing ever. I'll tell ya about it...but first I want to return the favour you did in Pallet."

"You sure your pokémon are up for a battle?" Ash taunted. Delphi chirped eagerly on his shoulder.

"Hell yes!" Gary exclaimed. Wartortle looked fired up. "I can't wait to kick your ass, Ashy-boy!"

"We'll see," Ash retorted dryly.

"So how do ya wanna do this?"

Ash thought about it. "How about a one on one? I have five at the moment but I don't want all of them to be tired. I didn't bring a lot of revives," he finished sheepishly.

"Don't worry, I got you," Gary said, "but let's do a one on one. I don't want to whoop your ass for so long, either."

Ash scowled. "Enough talk. Let's get on with it."

"That's what I'm talking about!"

Ash and Gary backed away several paces from and then faced off. Ash unclipped a pokeball from his belt. Gary simply snapped his fingers at Wartortle and the reptilian water-type swaggered in front of her trainer.

Ash tapped the release and out came Saur, rumbling and growling as he came out. His eyes narrowed as he saw Gary, and a few long seconds later it finally clicked in his mind. This was the human who's Squirtle he thrashed a month ago!

Gary whistled appreciatively. "Finally evolved, huh?" He blew a raspberry. "It doesn't change the fact that Wartortle's a lot stronger! Your Ivysaur _suuuuuucks_!"

Saur growled deeply at that comment and narrowed his scarlet eyes further at the arrogant trainer and Wartortle.

"Saur, let's beat them again," Ash told him. Saur nodded, determined. "Vine Whip!"

"Withdraw," drawled Gary in a lazy tone.

Saur lashed out with his green appendages just as Wartortle retreated into her shell. The vines bounced harmlessly against her shell, but Saur didn't give up.

The Ivysaur then grabbed Wartortle, lifted her in the air and began thrashing her repeatedly into the ground until he held the turtle steadily in the air. Gary looked unfazed until Ash gave his next order. "Energy Ball!" he shouted.

"Get out of there with Rapid Spin!" Gary commanded. "Follow up with Double Team."

Wartortle began to spin and tore away from Saur's grip just as the latter fired a green sphere of solar energy. Wartortle then flashed for a second and a dozen illusory copies of herself appeared on the field. Saur kept turning in every direction, determined to find the real one.

"Frostbite!" Gary was grinning.

Ash didn't know what kind of move Frostbite was, but it sounded like an Ice Fang of some sorts. Each of the copies shot at Saur, who was still turning in his place to lock onto the real Wartortle.

"Use your vines, Saur!" Ash called out. "Slash through every one of them!"

Saur grunted, vines shooting out and destroying every single copy, but he wasn't fast enough. The real Wartortle finally reached Saur and clamped her powerful jaws shut on Saur's body. The saurian screamed in pain as Wartortle performed Bite, then yowled even louder as frost exploded from the turtle's maw, causing a thick layer of ice to form on that part of his body. Saur growled furiously and tugged Wartortle away harshly with his vines and hurled her away as far as he could.

Ash didn't know what Frostbite exactly was, but he could put two and two together. From the way Wartortle attacked Saur, it was probably a combination of Bite and Ice Beam, creating a variance of Ice Fang. Simple yet effective.

He watched as Wartortle was sucked back into her shell the second before she landed roughly on the ground, popping out a second later. She waited with baited breath for Gary's next command, and so did Ash.

Gary smirked. "Still think your pokémon are stronger than mine, Ashy-boy?" he goaded.

"Saur, activate Chlorophyll!" Ash yelled. "Bring Wartortle down a few notches."

Saur nodded and quickly absorbed sufficient sunlight to produce the hormones that would significantly boost his speed. Gary narrowed his eyes, then shrugged.

He hadn't seen anything worth noticing.

"Double Team and Rapid Spin," Gary commanded. "Frostbite when it's confused."

Wartortle nodded and set off to work. Her body flashed once again, creating a wall of copies that quickly retreated into their shells and spun their way towards Saur, who simply stood there with a ghost of a smile on his face.

Then, a split-second before Wartortle was about to bite Saur, the grass-type type blurred away with a shock of speed, completely ignoring his bulk that would've normally slowed him down. Wartortle bit thin air and Gary was staring at Saur as if he was the newest wonder of the world. He was actually rubbing his eyes to make sure that what he saw was true.

"Double Team-Rapid Spin!" Gary called out, finally recovering from his initial surprise. "Shit, I gotta make up a name for that."

"Sweet Scent," Ash said with a grin on his face.

Just as ten copies spun towards their opponent, Saur spewed a stream of pink, cloyingly sweet aroma from his large pink bud. The powdery scent flowed into each of the shells, shattering the copies and revealing the real foe.

The Scent was enough to slow down Wartortle and she came to a halt a few feet away from Saur, then shot out of her shell, all relaxed and groggy.

Sweet Scent was actually a very useful tactic in battle. It would render the victim quite incapable of doing much. It was basically like alcohol – the organic chemicals present in Sweet Scent drastically increased the victim's reaction time, impaired judgement and decreased perception and coordination over time – at least until the target was knocked out.

Gary looked like he was about to panic now. "Snap out of it!" he shouted.

"Razor Leaf!" Ash called.

"Dodge!" Gary said.

Saur dozen razor-sharp, curved blades shot out from the saurian's back and sped towards Wartortle, but the turtle was still too stunned to avoid the attack. She cried out as the leaves cut into her reptilian skin and slammed into her sturdy shell, pushing her a good few feet away.

Wartortle staggered on the spot, still too dizzy to do anything. "Take Down," Ash said.

Gary didn't react as Saur blitzed his way to Wartortle, who finally seemed to get a handle on things. Ash thought for a moment that the other boy simply didn't have a way to counter Saur until Gary barked a single word. "Protect!"

A green circular shield formed in front of Wartortle and Saur smashed into it with such force that he was knocked out instantly upon impact, as though he'd run headlong into a brick wall, but Wartortle wasn't left safe. She was still groggy and the Protect barrier had been a hasty creation. With the added speed of Chlorophyll and the natural force it required for a Take Down, the barrier had exploded into a hundred fragments, repelling her into a thick three where she slammed and slumped down unconscious.

Gary shrugged and recalled Wartortle, but Ash just stood there, stumped. He couldn't believe Gary had been that smart to use Protect as a damaging move. That was _brilliant_.

Ash recalled Saur a moment later without saying a word.

"Ash much as I hate to say it, you did well," Gary admitted. "Maybe you _are_ worthy of being my rival. That's the first time Wartortle's lost against an adversary of the same strength."

"You've done well, too," Ash complimented. "I didn't expect you to flip _Protect_ around like that, though."

At that, Gary smirked. "Well, what else would anyone expect from the greatest of the greats, huh?"

"Yeah, yeah." Ash rolled his eyes. "Anyway, what were you talking about? What didn't Professor Oak tell me?"

Gary smiled wryly. "Ah...You know the carry limit for each trainer is six, right?"

"Uh-huh." Ash nodded, confused. Where was Gary going with this?

"So," the tall boy continued, "there are some trainers, like Elite Four members and ACE trainers, even Red and Blue, who are allowed to carry more than six pokémon with them, although this has to be endorsed by the League. Ya dig?"

"Yes, I dig," Ash said, sounding exasperated. "Can you please just get to the point?"

"Fine, fine," Gary relented. "Gramps had received confirmation that we can carry as many pokémon as we like."

He turned around and started walking off with a casual whistle on his lips. Ash blinked, stupefied as he finally comprehended what his rival had said.

" _Gary_!"

Gary stopped in his tracks and looked at Ash with the politest expression on his face. "What?" he asked innocently, further infuriating Ash.

"Don't ' _what_ ' me!" he snapped. "What do you mean?!"

"Gramps has been trying to do that for a long time," Gary drawled. "He gave our application to the League a month ago and they finally agreed a week ago. That means we – you, me, Natalie and that Jack – are finally allowed to carry as many pokémon as we like!"

Ash felt like a door had opened, allowing a gust of breeze to hit him. He couldn't believe what Gary told him. With this, he didn't have to worry about rotating his pokémon constantly. He could train them and be with them throughout his journey!

"Are you serious?!" Ash exclaimed.

"Yep." Gary nodded. "I suppose the old man forgot to mention it to the three of you, so it was a good thing you met me. Anyway, he told me to go and meet Bill Goodshow – that rich guy who comes to the lab sometimes? – and thank him, because he's the one who sped up our application process. I actually just came back from meeting him before I stumbled onto you," he finished, showcasing a myriad of pokeballs on his belt.

"So, what – I just have to _meet him_ and I'll be able to have as many pokémon as I want?" Ash asked, incredulous.

His rival nodded. "C'mon. I'll show you to his place."

XxXxX

Ash was extremely pumped as he made his way to Bill Goodshow's house. He'd heard the name before, obviously – Bill was the one who had the man who'd developed the international PC system that trainers used all over the world. Before, trainers were only allowed to make regional transfers, but Bill had changed everything. Now, trainers could make international transfers in the blink of an eye. Bill was also the son of Charles Goodshow, CEO of Silph Co and president of the Pokémon League. Ash couldn't not know such an important figure of the League.

To pass the time, Ash had battled a few trainers, but their numbers were decreasing as Ash and Gary made their way to what Gary called the 'Sea Cottage'. When there were literally no trainers near them, Ash and Gary began talking to one another and exchanging stories.

"So, what do you have on right now besides that Ivysaur and that Natu on your shoulder?" he asked, pointing at Delphi when he finished.

Ash shrugged. "Aside from Saur and Delphi, I've got Flaaffy and Clefairy."

His rival's eyes bulged. "Where'd you get a damn Clefairy?! Did you buy it or something?"

Ash shook his head. "I found her in Mt Moon," he said. "She came up to me and just captured herself."

Gary whistled appreciatively. "Shit, I combed Mt Moon forever for one of those. I spent three days and then I completely gave up."

Ash snickered. "As for me," Gary said without being asked, "My team is Wartortle, Nidorina, Pidgeotto, Raticate, Machop, Growlithe, Drowzee. Now that I'm allowed to carry as many as I can, I don't need to rotate my team," he finished.

Ash blinked. "Do you want to open a corral like your granddad?"

"Hey, at least I train them well," the other boy said defensively. "I bet I could kick your ass in a six-on-six!"

Before Ash could make an angry retort, Gary stopped in his tracks. "There it is. Sea Cottage."

The place was nice and quaint and held a peaceful air. The cool sea breeze washed over him and ruffled his jacket slightly. Several benches were placed along the cliff and most of them were filled.

"Like the place, huh, Ashy-boy?" Gary grinned. "C'mon. Let's go inside."

Ash knocked on the door, but unfortunately no one answered. Ash was about to knock once again to declare his presence, but the Oak next to him simply snorted and pushed the door wide open without permission.

It was exactly like how Ash had imagined it to be – messy. Papers were strewn on a mahogany table, which held a superb computer. A mug of stale coffee and a half-eaten sandwich was set next to it. There were many bookshelves along the walls, filled with a million books, and most of the spaces were empty. Some books were littered on the floor, with coloured post-its stuck on dog-eared pages. Ash though Red was disorganised, but Bill put him to shame.

At the back of the room were two, large tubes set several metres apart from each other. The glass walls were translucent green, and between the tubes was a small computer with cables snaking away from it.

Then Ash noticed the next thing – there was a Clefairy in the room. A rather large Clefairy. It had a perpetual smile on its face and it looked like it was frozen.

"Does Bill have a Clefairy?" Ash asked Gary. "And where _is_ he?"

Gary shrugged. "Dunno. I swear he was here when I came to meet him."

"I'm right here, chap."

Ash and Gary flinched as they heard a deadpanned, sophisticated voice come from the Clefairy. He didn't know how a Clefairy could actually talk, but ever since his encounter with the Clefable elder and the Meowth in Viridian City he wasn't taking any chances.

"Whoa!" Gary sounded awestruck. "You can _talk_?!"

The Clefairy turned towards the duo like a robot, still smiling. "Of _course_ I can bloody talk, you git. And to think you were the grandson of Mr Oak..."

"B-But how—"

"It's because I'm not a bloody pokémon!" the Clefairy exclaimed in the same silky voice, crudely waving its stubby arms about. "Damn, that bloody hurts!"

"Wait..." Ash frowned. "If you're not a Clefairy, then—"

"Are you thick?" the Clefairy snapped waspishly. "I'm Bill Goodshow and I'm stuck in this bloody costume!"

Gary snorted. "How the hell did you manage to get yourself in a frickin' Clefairy costume?"

Bill sighed, exasperated. "I'm doing a project on Clefairy right now," he explained. "I usually dress up like the pokémon I'm studying to, uh, get to know it better, but I completely misjudged the costume while making it. The arms are so bloody short and my arms feel like they've been folded in half. Now I can't get out of this unless I press the release button on this bloody thing.

"So," he said, "it would be _really_ bloody brilliant if one of you would care to get me out of this sloppy thing and not leave it up to one of my aides, who will be coming up later today. It would _really_ save my damn pride."

"Sure." Ash shrugged. He anyways needed to get his work done, so saving Bill wouldn't create any hard feeling between them.

"My saviour!" he cried out. The 'Clefairy' waddled like a creature with immovable joints in Ash's direction and Bill spread his short arms for a hug, then immediately dropped the idea. "Ouch, that hurts. Sorry, old chap, but I won't be able to hug you right now."

"Uh, that's okay," Ash replied. In any case he didn't want a hug from the Clefairy-disguised person. He walked behind Bill and searched for a release button over the costume before finding a small, grey button on the suit's neck. The moment he stabbed it with his finger, the suit separated dorsally from the top, letting out a cloud of smoke and revealing the person inside.

Ash was looking at one of the most brilliant minds in the entire world. He looked young for such a genius, perhaps twenty-three, and had a mass of unruly brown hair. He was thin, but not so much to be considered scrawny. His eye colour matched his hair, except that they were darker. Bill wore a fine, silk shirt and brown pants. He held a smug air, but that was soon lost when he whipped around and pulled Ash into a hug.

"You, sir, are a godsend!" he exclaimed. Ash tried to politely let go, but Bill's grip was like steel. "I would've made a bloody fool out of myself if it weren't for you!"

He suddenly let go of Ash and grinned at Gary. "And you helped!"

Gary took a step back in fear of a hug. "I – I did?"

"Yeah, you did!" Bill said. "You brought him here, Mr Oak! You guys are life-savers! I owe you my dignity!"

Ash waved off the comment. "Don't mention it, Mr Goodshow," he said.

Bill rolled his eyes. "Don't call me that," he told Ash. "Mr Goodshow is my dad. Call me Bill."

Ash chuckled. "Okay, Bill."

"And, secondly, you two simply cannot refuse my offer," he continued. "A Goodshow always pays his debts."

"Well, if you insist..." Gary shrugged. "Wha'd'ya have in mind?"

Bill thought for a moment. "Aha!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "I have just the gift!"

He headed up to the upper floor of his house, leaving Ash and Gary down for a good fifteen minutes before coming back down with two big parcels. Ash and Gary stared at the gifts curiously for a few seconds before opening it up to take a look at the contents.

Ash gaped at the five ultra-balls and ten full restores inside. He knew that both items were ridiculously costly and not something he could purchase without starving for a month (at least right now). He also knew that ultra-balls gave a much higher catch rate than pokeballs and great-balls, while full restores accelerated healing much faster than potions and held more of the potent medicine than their simpler forms. He peeked at Gary's gift and found the same items in them. Then both boys stared at Bill.

The researcher chuckled. "I've got more money than I care to count, lads," he drawled. "Plus, you two just saved my hide back there. This is just a simple and small token of appreciation."

The two nodded dumbly and stuffed the gifts inside their backpacks. Bill chuckled once more at their stupefied expressions before sitting at his messy desk.

"Anyhoo," he said, typing away on his computer, "why did you come back, Gary? Did you forget something? You'll have a hell of a time searching through this mess for it, though."

Gary's eyes widened. "Oh! This is one of the trainers gramps was talking about, Bill. The one who needed them carry limit terminated."

Bill abruptly stopped typing whatever he was and slowly turned his head to Ash. "Well, why didn't you say so?" he demanded.

"We were busy getting you out of that dam costume, that's why," Ash growled, though soft enough for Bill to not hear it.

"Can I have your pokédex, please?" Bill demanded. Ash immediately took the chrome device out and handed it over to the young researcher.

Ash watched as Bill tapped the device a few times, then turned to his computer and typed in Ash's trainer ID. Ash waited only twenty seconds before Bill stabbed the enter button and grinned. "Voila!"

Ash blinked. "That's it?"

"Righto," Bill agreed. "You are now allowed to carry more than six pokémon on your roster."

Ash was so happy that he began jumping up and down his pure joy. Gary snorted and took out his pokégear to record it, but Ash didn't care.

The only thing he cared about was whether his rival would hold it against him for the rest of his life or not.

When he was done expressing his happiness, he looked at Bill, revering him. "Thanks a lot, Bill. This means a lot to me."

"Don't sweat it, Ash," Bill replied. "Anyway, it was Mr Oak – and by that I mean _your_ grandfather – who asked me to perform this request, and I'd do anything for that man. He was the one who took me under his wing and made me the researcher I am today! Not to mention my dear old pals Celio and Lanette!"

Ash grinned at Bill. "Okay, Bill."

Gary cleared his throat. "Normally I would love to see budding _bromances_ , but I need to get to Vermillion before it's too late," he said, smirking. "Gramps got a ticket to the St Anne, but he's got a lot of work to do so he gave it to me. Pretty sweet, right?"

Ash stared at Gary.

The boy shrugged. "Anyways, smell ya later, Ashy-boy...I've got a cruise liner to catch..."

Gary whirled out of the house like a roadrunner. Ash stamped his foot in frustration. "Damn that Gary," he growled. "I'm gonna get on that ship if it's the last thing I do!"

Bill cleared his throat, declaring his existence. "Sorry to interrupt," the researcher said, "but I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with Gary. If you really want to get on that bloody ship..." He put his hand on his pocket and took out a scrap of paper, holding it out to Ash. "Here it is."

Ash blinked, frowning. "What's that?"

"That, my dear friend, is a ticket to the St Anne cruise liner." Bill scowled. "One of my colleagues at the League gave it to me, but those bloody rich crowds aren't my type. I can't stand those fancy do's. If I were a trainer," he added, "I'd definitely take up such an offer. They have tournaments on board that offer rare pokémon and items as prizes."

Bill smirked. "I'm sure you'll be able to win most of the prizes, for most of the trainers on board are rich prats who got trainer licenses from their wealthy parents so that they could own pokémon as pets."

Talk about an offer he couldn't refuse. Ash didn't like mingling with wealthy people, but the sound of prizes and tournaments made him think twice.

"The St Anne will dock in Vermillion city for two days in a month from now," Bill continued, "and will head to Cinnabar Island for a five-day trip, including a return journey to Fuchsia. Sounds good, doesn't it?"

Ash nodded dumbly. "Thanks a lot, Bill," he said. "For everything."

"Well, what are friends for?" Bill grinned. "If ya need any help, just give me a ring. I'll always answer, unless I'm going out in search for Clefairy of something."

Ash nodded. With a final word of thanks and goodbye, he stepped out of the Sea Cottage and pocketed the St Anne ticket.

XxXxX

It was evening when Ash returned to Cerulean City. He'd battled as many trainers as he could on the Nugget Bridge, but made sure to defeat all of them quickly. His pokémon were pretty exhausted and he was running low on medicines.

He'd almost forgotten about the Psyduck he'd captured. When he finally remembered about it, he made haste to the Pokémon Centre and gave up all his pokeballs to Nurse Joy. He spent his time in the Centre's cafeteria, thinking about the day's events and also his battle with Gary.

The way Gary had trained his Wartortle had set Ash thinking. Wartortle hadn't just used attacking moves – Protect and Double Team were proof of that. What infuriated Ash even further was that Gary was smart enough to implement combo moves and Ash hadn't. He was feeling really stupid.

The way he saw it, he and his team were just relying on brute force a bit too much. He didn't fight with much more than brute force. Of course, you couldn't make it far without a lot of power, but he had to begin thinking competitively. If not, the seasoned veterans he would face in the league would thrash the living daylights out of him.

Gary was the analytic. He didn't make rash decisions in battle, and mostly kept his cool during them. He'd always recover from other trainers' strategies, even if they left him really stumped. He, Ash, wasn't like that.

That's when he decided to take a step back and go easy. It wasn't like he was giving up on increasing his friends' strength, but he also had to help them develop strategies that would help them in battle.

He was so lost in thought that he almost didn't hear Nurse Joy calling out his name over the speakers. He grabbed his things, slurped down the rest of his shake and ran to collect his friends as quickly as possible.

They needed some training to do.

XxXxX

As soon as he was at the training field, Ash pressed the release buttons of the four pokeballs he was familiar with, and his pokémon greeted him with a chorus of sounds. Luna immediately rushed over to her trainer's side, earning an ugly look from Delphi.

"Okay, guys, we're going to hit the Cerulean Gym tomorrow," Ash informed them. "The gym leader there uses water-types, so we should have a pretty easy time there."

At the sound of water-types, Saur grinned and Zeus swelled importantly, causing Delphi and Luna to roll their eyes and share a disgusted look. _Boys_.

"However," Ash added, "just because Saur and Zeus have a type advantage doesn't mean that I'll be using them. Zeus is going up tomorrow, and so are you, Delphi."

At that, Delphi shrieked in laughter, Zeus snorted and Luna chuckled as Saur looked at his trainer in utter shock and disbelief. Ash gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry buddy, but you had your fun at Pewter. I can't just let you take on everyone and not give the rest a chance. Unless you want to go tomorrow and miss out on the next two gym battles..."

Saur glared at Ash, then nodded reluctantly and looked away, sulking. Ash snorted. Apparently that deal was too much for Saur.

"The second thing I want to talk about is our new teammate," Ash told them. "You guys remember the Psyduck back on the Nugget Bridge?"

Delphi and Saur nodded, although Zeus and Luna stared at their trainer quizzically because they had yet to meet it. Ash took out Psyduck's pokeball and held it up, prepared to tap the release. "Remember not to intimidate it, alright?"

When his team nodded, he set Psyduck loose. The water-type looked around confusedly at its surroundings before finally noticing Ash and his team.

He smiled, doing his best to not seem intimidating to Psyduck. "Hey there, Psyduck." He spoke slowly. "Feeling good?" When the water-type nodded, he continued. "I'm Ash. I'm your new trainer, and this is the rest of my team: Saur, Luna, Zeus and Delphi."

Each of them greeted Psyduck when their names were announced. Psyduck seemed a little uncomfortable when he saw Zeus' woolly mane involuntarily sparked, but the Flaaffy immediately snuffed it out and let Ash hurry on.

Ash quickly gave it his obligatory monologue. "I'm on my way to become the strongest Pokémon Master in the world," he told it. "Think you have what it takes to be the best?"

Psyduck cocked its head for a moment, then quacked eagerly. Ash smiled at its enthusiasm. Psyduck wanted to become the strongest, and Ash would help it achieve that goal.

Ash took out his pokédex and Psyduck looked curiously at it. "This is a pokédex," he told it. "It'll help me tell a little bit about you. Just don't move for a while."

Psyduck nodded. Ash scanned the duck with his device and waited for the information to be relayed.

 _Psyduck, the duck pokémon. Psyduck uses a mysterious power. When it does so, this pokémon generates brain waves that are supposedly seen only in sleepers and Psyduck can't remember having done so. It apparently can't form a memory of such an event because it goes into an altered state that is much like deep sleep._

 _This Psyduck is male and knows the moves: Water Gun, Scratch, Water Sport, Confusion, Confuse Ray, Refresh, Disable and Psybeam. Its ability is Swift Swim, which increases the pokémon's speed in water and/or rainy conditions._

Psyduck had a wide range of moves, and Ash could work with it. He figured he was probably at Delphi's level right now, and given a week or two of solid training he would quickly fall into the ranks.

Ash grinned at Psyduck. "So, do you want a nickname? I already have one thought up for you if you want one."

Psyduck eagerly nodded. An eager trainer and a nickname? Sweet!

"How about Hydrus?" he told him. He'd thought of several names for a water-type pokémon – Poseidon, Tidal, Torrent and Ariel to name a few – but he liked this one best. His only hope was that Psyduck would also like it, and he grinned wider when Psyduck nodded and quacked in agreement. "Great. Nice to have you on the team, Hydrus!"

Ash let the newly-dubbed Hydrus mingle with the rest of his new teammates. Hydrus quacked a greeting to everyone except Zeus, whom he was still wary of. The others hummed, growled or chirped back and Zeus himself brought out a hand in the form of a handshake. Huh. He'd never thought the Flaaffy would've picked up that human gesture.

He was further surprised when Zeus didn't give Hydrus a mild shock when the latter shook Zeus' hand with his own. Zeus normally shocked others as a prank, but perhaps this time he wanted to make a good impression on the newest teammate, who was naturally weak to electric attacks.

They were growing.

"Alright, everyone!" The boy clapped loudly for their attention. "Let's get to training. Hydrus, come with me. I want to assess you and your battling skills so that I can give you some training regimes. Delphi, work on Stored Power with Luna. You'll have to get it down before tomorrow. Saur and Zeus, you two come with me. I've got something to give you two. Sounds good?"

His team let out a chorus of sounds. "Let's get started."

XxXxX

Ash's assessment of Hydrus had gone rather well. His Water Gun was extremely precise and he was proud in the Psyduck's Water Gun. Hydrus had gotten Scratch down pretty well too. The only things he hadn't tried out were Hypnosis, Psybeam and Confusion, since Hydrus just looked at Ash awkwardly for a few moments.

As for Saur and Zeus, Ash had decided to give them TMs to widen their move pool. The only attacking moves Saur knew right now were Energy Ball, Vine Whip and Razor Leaf – Ash didn't consider his hereditary moves – and the rest were powder moves. Zeus also knew a limited number of moves, so he needed more to his arsenal.

Besides, Red had given those TMs for a reason. He was pretty sure his big brother would smack him upside the head if he knew that his TMs were put into storage.

Ash gave Saur Toxic. Poison Powder has extremely bad accuracy and basically floated slowly towards the opponent, so there was no guarantee that Poison Powder would hit it's mark. Toxic, on the other hand, could be released in a wave or as a stream and was produced much faster than Poison Powder.

Plus, if Toxic was used by a poison-type pokémon, the venom would be produced in a split-second, so fast that it would rarely miss the target. Ash didn't know why, but it was just one of those mysterious things about pokémon.

Ash took out Saur's pokeball when the machine stopped whirring and released the Ivysaur before inserting Zeus' pokeball in the TM Case. Ash took out the TM for Toxic and replaced it with Iron Tail. He pressed the start button and waited as the machine began to whirr again, this time releasing a faint silver light.

When the process was done, Ash released Zeus. The Flaaffy bounced on his hind legs and grinned with newfound power. Ash snorted as Zeus began to bleat, but stopped when Saur shut his mouth with his vines.

"Cut it out, guys," Ash said with a roll of his eyes as Zeus and Saur took a step away to face off. "If you guys start fighting then say no to dinner."

That effectively shut the two up and Ash had a victorious smirk on his face. Then he decided to set off to work.

"Saur, we won't be testing Toxic right now because you might accidentally hit someone else," Ash said. "Zeus, let's see Iron Tail, okay?"

Ash found a suitable target – one of the boulders that he and his team were so fond of destroying. "You see that?" Zeus nodded. "Okay, use Iron Tail when I give the word. Give it all you've got."

Zeus screwed up his face in determination and balled his fists, waiting for Ash to give one word.

"Go."

The Flaaffy darted towards the boulder on his hind legs, his striped tail glowing a violent shade of silver all the way. When he was a few feet away, Zeus front-flipped into the air and drove his metallic tail home. Ash saw cracks spreading under the force of the attack and Zeus bounced away when he was done.

"That was great," Ash congratulated. Saur grunted to Zeus and the latter huffed arrogantly.

"Okay, then." Ash snapped his fingers. "Saur, you'll be practising Magical Leaf. I'll ask Luna to help you with it, 'cause she's got a good amount of control on that move," he told Saur. "Zeus, I think you've got Iron Tail down, so come with me. I've got a pretty good strategy for you to use in battle."

XxXxX

Once has had deemed Delphi's and Luna's training session on Stored Power done, Ash decided to bring Saur over. The Clefairy looked unwaveringly, but Ash could see the distaste in her eyes as he and Saur came closer.

Other than wanting Saur to get a hold on Magical Leaf, Ash also wanted the saurian to train with Luna so that they could spend some time getting used to each other. Their relationship wasn't cordial, but it wasn't broken either. Other than polite hums and growls, Ash had never seen the two communicating in either way.

Ash didn't want that to happen. He smiled fondly at Delphi and Luna when they finished storing up the required psychic energy in their bodies. It was far easier for Delphi than her companion, since Luna wasn't used to manipulating psychic energy, but fairy-types were closely related to psychic-types and Ash was sure that the two of them would master it before long.

"Delphi, you've earned your rest," Ash told it. "Luna, I couldn't ask more of you, but I have a tiny request."

Luna nodded, determined to do anything for her trainer. Ash grinned sheepishly. "Well...I want you to help Saur learn Magical Leaf, okay?"

Luna's eyes widened at that, staring at the dual grass/poison-type in fear. Ash was afraid she was going to decline, but smiled when Luna nodded, albeit reluctantly. Ash shrugged. "Alright. Saur, Luna, get to work. Delphi, do you want to stay in the pokeball or outside?"

Delphi responded by hopping onto his shoulder and trilling out loud. Ash smirked, but hi face twisted into a frown when he saw Saur and Luna staring warily at each other.

Ash walked away, leaving that problem to the two pokémon. Ash couldn't solve it on his own – they had to do something on their part too. He would've known that there was some hope if he'd seen Luna and Saur decided to set their differences aside and get to making the grass-type stronger.

XxXxX

"Alright, Zeus," Ash said. "You ready?"

Zeus bleated in confirmation. The electric-type balled his fists and the woolly mane on his head and back sparked with electricity. He grunted, waiting for his trainer's command.

"Cotton Stun!"

Cotton Stun was experimental, but the concept was simple enough – Zeus used Cotton Spore, but with an electrical charge just powerful enough to paralyse the opponent. Ash had actually thought of it while brainstorming strategies, and this one seemed like a pretty good idea.

The wool Zeus wore already had static electricity stored in it, so it wasn't exactly hard for him to use the Cotton Spore variation. In any case, half a dozen cotton balls burst out from the Flaaffy's mane, with enough amount of electricity embedded in them to paralyse the target – Delphi.

Ash grinned in happiness when the Cotton Spores latched onto the Natu and dispersed an electrical charge into her body. Ash grimaced as he saw sparks dance around her body for a moment; he hated seeing her like that, but she didn't mind.

Ash was actually surprised when she came up to him and volunteered to be the target for Zeus' practice. The first three times Zeus had tried using Cotton Stun, he'd put a bit too much electricity into it and shocked Delphi, but the Natu had simply shaken it off and shrieked for Zeus to try once more. Ash couldn't help but be surprised at the fortitude she demonstrated, especially since she wasn't fond of Zeus' electric attacks.

He watched in anticipation as Delphi hopped once, twice, thri – Delphi froze abruptly, a spark travelling around her body as she fell down to the ground. The electricity had incapacitated her, rendering her immobile for a few seconds.

Ash jumped up in joy, then immediately rushed over to Delphi with a full heal in his hands. He sprayed the medicine over the twitching bird and her paralyse quickly healed up. The Natu chirped and ruffled her feathers before smiling at Ash with her eyes, causing Ash to smile back.

"Great job, you two," Ash told them. He sighed. "I guess this is it for today. I'll get you guys healed up and we'll head for dinner. Sounds good?"

Zeus and Delphi nodded. Ash recalled Zeus, allowed Delphi to hop onto his shoulder and decided to call it a day.

It had been a long night.

XxXxX

Ash had only seen one two gyms in his life, and this one seemed like a joke.

Cerulean City's gym looked more like an entertainment facility than anything, what with the colourful stripes on the roof and the huge structure of a Dewgong on the front. Ash had actually double-checked whether he was in the right place, but sure enough, he was.

He'd woken up pretty early, but decided to give Delphi and Zeus a bit of training and having a hearty breakfast before going out. He made sure his pokémon didn't overeat, because he didn't want any of them falling sick mid-battle. He was pretty sure gym leaders didn't appreciate pokémon sicking over each other.

Ash stepped into the gym. It was a short walk to an enormous lobby, which was surprisingly empty. From what he had heard, the Sensational Sisters were very popular in Kanto and were regularly mobbed by crazy fans in Cerulean City.

A receptionist, with a bored expression on her face, sat at the front desk...digging her nose. Yuck. Apparently she hadn't noticed Ash yet, because she was still going at it. Ash felt pretty disgusted and he cleared his throat as loud as he could, startling the receptionist and causing her to jump in the air.

"Oh!" The receptionist hastily wiped the snot off on her blue mini-skirt. "Hello! If you're wanting to meet Cerulean's Sensational Sisters, they're not available—"

"I'm here for a gym battle," Ash cut in. The girl abruptly stopped and nodded.

"Okay. Please wait for a second." The receptionist pressed a button and spoke into a microphone. "Ms Waterflower? Ms Waterflower!" she yelled into the mic, causing Ash to wince at her loudness. The receptionist looked at Ash apologetically. "Sorry. It'll take a while to wake them up."

The girl kept screaming into the mic for the next five minutes until she heard someone yell back into her earpiece. "Ms Waterflower, we've got a challenger." Pause. "Yes, I understand." She looked at Ash and gestured to a door at her right. "Go in through there," she told him. "The Gym Leader will meet you shortly."

Ash dipped his head and pushed the door open. He was pumped for a battle.

The battlefield was pretty impressive. It was an enormous pool with several circular platforms scattered around it, which was a good thing since it would be good only to water pokémon. The huge swimming pool was surrounded by stands for spectators to sit, although the only ones present were three girls with _distinctly_ coloured hair and another – someone very familiar to Ash – was swimming expertly.

As soon as the three girls in the bleachers saw Ash, they raced towards him, annoyed. Ash noticed they were _stunningly_ hot. "What the hell, kid?" The one with orange hair pouted. "Couldn't you just let us sleep? Last night's show was like, so tiring!"

"Yeah, totes," the blue-haired girl agreed. "What kind of a trainer gets up so early?"

Ash glared at her, irritated. "What kind of a gym leader sleeps till _eleven_ in the morning?"

"Why, the Sensational Sisters, of course!" the pink-haired exclaimed, utterly unabashed.

"Shut up, Lily," the girl with blue hair chided. "You'll make our reputation sink into the drains!"

"Yeah, like it hasn't already drowned," a familiar voice said acidly.

Ash turned his attention to the speaker. Ash immediately recognised her – the girl who'd been swimming earlier – and his face twisted into one of shock. "You! You're that Misty girl I met in Mt Moon!"

Misty smirked, drying her hair with a fluffy white towel she'd picked up on the way. "Yep. I was surprised you didn't come here yesterday – by the sounds of it, it seemed like you wanted to get to the gym battle straight away."

"You two like, know each other?" the blue-haired girl asked.

"Yes, Violet, try to keep up," Misty snapped. She turned to Ash with a smile. "The others already came up here yesterday, you know."

Ash frowned. "The others?"

"Let's see..." Misty screwed up her face in concentration. "That Paul boy easily won his badge with his Turtwig and Elekid, and that Jackie boy scraped a win, too – although it was expected when they had to battle my useless sisters," she added, smirking.

Violet glared at her. "We're so not useless!" she yelled. "We're the Sensational Sisters – and you're the runt!"

Misty groaned. "How many times do I have to tell you that the word 'runt' does not get to me?"

The blonde sighed. "As many—"

"Shut up, Daisy," Misty interrupted.

She turned to Ash. "Anyway, let's get this show started. Daisy, ref the match, please," she told Violet.

"Okie-dokie!" Violet squeaked, then ran over to the halfway position of the battlefield.

"Well, what do we do, then?" Lily huffed angrily, gesturing at herself and Daisy.

"Why don't you go sleep in the bleachers?" Misty suggested. The girls considered this, and a moment later shrugged and went to the stands.

Ash and Misty quickly walked towards their respective trainer boxes on the field. "How many badges do you have, Ash?" she yelled from across the field.

"One!" he yelled back.

Misty nodded and took out a set of pokeballs from her badge-registered teams. She stared fiercely at Ash, who stared back in the same challenging manner.

"This gym battle for the Cascade Badge will now begin!" Violet declared from her place. "Both sides are allowed to use only two pokémon. No substitutions are allowed. Incapacitate the leader's pokémon or force her to withdraw both of them, and you win the match!" she said, the last part directed towards Ash. The boy nodded. "The challenger will have the first move.

"Trainers, release your pokémon!"

There were two bursts of energy and light subsequently. Zeus formed on Ash's side, bleating angrily. Misty released a fish with white and orange scales – Goldeen. It sported a sharp, thin horn on its forehead and leapt into the air from under the water with its powerful dorsal and pectoral fins.

Ash didn't know much about it, except that it was blindingly fast in water for a water-type and had a wickedly sharp horn. He didn't want it anywhere near Zeus and made sure to mention that to his friend.

Violet slashed her hand down, flag and all. "Begin!"

"Charge," Ash ordered. He wanted Zeus to finish off Goldeen as quickly as possible before he let Delphi have a go at the gym leader's next pokémon.

Zeus immediately curled his fists and began to ionise the air around him. Sparks were drawn to his body in a matter of seconds, making his electric attacks than before as charges were pumped into his system.

Misty, however, didn't seem perturbed by this action. In fact, she seemed calmer than Ash had ever been and even had a smile on her face.

"Horn Attack," she told it. Goldeen murmured and bounded towards Zeus.

When Goldeen was a good distance away, Ash snapped. "Full-power Thundershock!" he shouted. "Fry it."

Zeus let loose a lance of electricity at Goldeen, ignoring the fact that Misty was smirking. Goldeen was leaping in and out of the pool as it made towards its opponent, and the electricity managed to hit it the second it burst out of the water, striking its horn—

Ash's eyes widened as the electricity was _absorbed_ the second it touched the fish's horn, and Zeus looked equally surprised. Goldeen leapt at the Flaaffy with a glowing horn and proceeded to stab him right in the torso, making him bleat out in pain. Before he could do anything, however, Goldeen flopped back into the water and to its trainer's side.

"What the heck just happened?" he spluttered to no one in particular.

Misty snorted. "I've built my team to counter every weakness, Ash," Misty called out from the other side. "All I'll say is this: Lightning Rod."

Ash cursed under his breath. Of course it was Lightning Rod. Lightning Rod completely negated the effects of electric attacks on the carrier and instead boosted its strength every time the carrier was hit. Goldeen with this ability were incredibly rare, but maybe being a gym Leader Misty had contacts with professional breeders of all sorts.

Ash chewed his lip nervously. This completely changed the tide of the battle. If Zeus couldn't use electric attacks without strengthening the opponent, he was at a huge disadvantage. Granted, he did know stuff like Take Down and Iron Tail, but that would include physical contact and Ash really didn't want him to get anywhere near that horn.

 _Unless..._

He decided to hold that thought for later. "Cotton Stun!" Ash said. "Aim for the body, not the horn!" he added in a whisper.

Zeus grunted and balls of cotton shot out from his body and towards Goldeen. Misty scoffed. "What the hell is a Cotton Spore going to do?" she said as the wool latched itself on Goldeen's body. "I mean yeah, it'll slow her down, but—"

She stopped abruptly as Goldeen began to spasm and twitch uncomfortably as the paralysis took over. It took a moment for Misty to figure out what had happened. "A Cotton Spore with an electrical charge in it..." She sounded impressed. "I like it, but it'll take more than just a paralysis to bring Goldeen down! Goldeen, Water Pulse!"

Goldeen formed a positively large Water Pulse (for its level) in front of its mouth and fired it at Zeus. He didn't need to be told twice to dodge it, and Zeus successfully managed to evade it by leaping onto another platform. However, that brought him, unfortunately, tantalisingly close to Goldeen and its horn.

"Horn Attack!" Misty yelled triumphantly.

"Not happening!" Ash bellowed. "Intercept with Iron Tail!"

Horn Attack met Iron Tail and both pokémon were knocked back upon collision. Goldeen managed to do little damage to Zeus, because the Flaaffy had managed to evade the point and strike the side of Goldeen's horn. The fish whined at its aching horn, but shrugged it off and leapt towards Zeus once more.

"Pulsing Strike!" Misty ordered.

He didn't have the foggiest idea as to what Goldeen was preparing. "Dodge!" Ash called out.

A Water Pulse formed around Goldeen's horn and it swam towards Zeus. Zeus waited for the last second to dodge, but Goldeen simply bounced back out of the water and hit Zeus in the back. The sphere of water exploded in a pulsing wave upon contact and sent Zeus flying away, but not before Goldeen managed to score a swift jab with its horn.

Zeus bleated out in pain as he was sent flying into the water, but upon hearing Ash's orders he made to swim towards the nearest platform, however awkwardly. Misty took her chance.

"Pulsing Strike, double time!"

Zeus frantically began to paddle faster when he turned his head back and saw Goldeen speeding towards him, but in vain. The Water Pulse variant slammed into him and knocked him right into the platform he was heading towards. Ash glared in anger as he saw Goldeen deliver a few more Horn Attacks from all directions before swimming back to its trainer.

"You see?" Misty shouted as Zeus finally pulled himself onto the platform after moments of struggling. "You can't beat me right now, Ash. If you want you can come back later when my sisters are free – they basically hand out badges." She paused. "What is it – do you forfeit?"

Ash didn't say anything, but, instead of shaking with rage, he was surprisingly calm. Misty was just another milestone he had to pass to prove that he and his friends were strong enough to conquer the world. He wasn't going to end up like any other ordinary trainer in the world.

"Zeus!" he shouted. "If you're fine, keep going. Let's show them what you're made of!"

Ash smiled when he saw Zeus grinning at him, no matter how hurt he was. The Flaaffy stood up, doing his best to shake off the pain. He shook his body, removing most of the water in his wool before Ash saw sparks dancing across is body.

He wasn't giving up.

"Fine," Misty said. "I hate putting pokémon through so much pain, but I'll have to do it if your Flaaffy is still standing. Horn Attack!"

"Take Down," Ash said. "Avoid the—"

Zeus bleated in annoyance, effectively shutting his trainer up. He didn't need to be told constantly to avoid Goldeen's horn.

Zeus tensed up as Goldeen came closer, but the fish suddenly froze and spasmed as sparks flew across its body. Paralysis. It was still paralysed.

Zeus then leapt from platform to platform, building up speed while Goldeen followed him in the water, shooting Water Pulses occasionally. Zeus avoided them, and although one managed to nick him in the legs he kept running.

Finally Goldeen caught up and lunged at Zeus, but the Flaaffy ducked and avoided the glowing horn. Instead, he battered into Goldeen's underside in a reckless tackle and sent it flying into the air.

Ash decided to try out his idea. "Wild Charge when it comes down!"

Goldeen flailed helplessly as it plummeted straight to Zeus, who was waiting below it. Zeus tensed his legs and leaped into the air, cloaked in electricity as he slammed into Goldeen's underside once again, although this time giving it the shock of its life.

Ash grinned when Goldeen flopped and spasmed in pain from the electricity. Although he was happy that Zeus had managed to score a devastating hit, he was happier at the fact that his assumption was right all the while.

While Lightning Rod did draw negate the effects of electric attacks, it happened only if the pokémon managed to catch the electricity on a suitable rod – tails for Pikachu, bones for Cubone, and horns for Goldeen and its evolution, Seaking. Misty's Goldeen could easily redirect bolts of lightning to its horn and completely shrug off the electricity, but not it the case of Wild Charge, because it wasn't used in a beam-form like Thunderbolt or Thundershock, to name a few.

Wild Charge delivered an electric blow to the body, so Goldeen had had no way to redirect it to its horn. Ash was pretty smug to say that he'd thought of it all by himself, _and_ in such a sticky situation.

Ash pulled himself out of his thoughts. "Zeus, finish it with Iron Tail!"

Misty was frantically calling out commands for Goldeen to get back into the pool, but Zeus was faster – _much_ faster – and smacked a solid, metallic tail on Goldeen's head and knocked it out unconscious. The fish stopped flopping like a Magikarp and lay still on the platform.

Misty recalled Goldeen back into its pokeball and murmured a word of thanks to a sphere before putting it back on her belt. Even though they had just been in a heated battle, it warmed Ash's heart to see another trainer care for her pokémon the same way he did.

"Nice job there," Misty admitted grudgingly. "I thought Goldeen would've finished off that Flaaffy of yours, but the two of you managed to turn the tables around. Consider me impressed."

"Thanks, but it was all Zeus," Ash said, deflecting the praise to his friend, but Misty shook her head.

"I know he did a great job, but it was you that managed to keep him going. That pep talk? That shows the true bond between trainer and pokémon. It obviously shows that he trusts you. And I was stumped when you found a counter for Lightning Rod."

Ash smiled warmly. Misty was certainly a great gym leader. "Thanks for the kind words, but don't expect Zeus or I to let up to you for them," he said.

She grinned. "I like that attitude." She hurled a second pokeball in the air. "Starmie, let's go!"

The Starmie which appeared on the platform was very different than the one he'd seen her use in Mt Moon. It was significantly smaller, but Ash knew it was strong in its own right. It was also newly evolved, he noticed, because when it rotated the second set of arms on its back they moved slower than they normally would, which meant it was still getting used to its new form.

Ash couldn't help but asking his opponent a question. "Hey, what happened to your other Starmie?"

Misty smiled. "You're not yet ready for my league registered team," she told him. "I've trained it since I was seven years old. Its become quite the monster, you know."

Ash didn't know how she could train since seven, but before he could ask her, Violet cleared her throat. "Excuse me, but can your questions wait? A gym battle is going on!"

"Sorry." Ash turned his attention to Zeus, who was panting. That battle with Goldeen must've really tired him out. "Zeus, can you keep going? If you can't, let me know!"

Zeus nodded his head determinedly. He didn't have much gas left in the tank, but he wanted to keep battling. His goal was to get stronger. He didn't want to pull back just like that.

"Okay," Ash said, nodding, "but if I feel you're pushing yourself beyond your boundaries I'll recall you. Alright?"

Zeus grunted and turned to face Starmie.

"Begin!" Violet screamed.

"Thundershock!" Ash ordered. "Give it all you've got!"

"Dodge, Starmie!" Misty shouted.

Starmie's gem flashed and the second set of limbs began to spin like a helicopter, and, to Ash's astonishment, began soaring in the air. It effortlessly dodged the bolts of electricity Zeus kept firing, but the electric-type quickly stopped and watched his opponent warily.

"Hydro Pump!" Misty said.

Ash watched as a surge of water was blasted from the ends of Starmie's first set of arms at high pressure. He frowned as Starmie began spinning, spraying it all over the field. There was no way Zeus could dodge that in such a tired state.

He decided to try something. "Hit the water with Hydro Pump!"

Zeus let loose another bolt of electricity just as the Hydro Pump crashed into him. The water multiplied the intensity of the electricity and gave Starmie a thorough shocking.

Ash knew that Zeus was on his last legs as he saw the Flaaffy panting heavily and struggling to keep standing. "Thunder Wave, Zeus! Give it a little parting shot."

Zeus nodded in understanding. He himself knew that he was about to faint, but at least he could lay some damage on Starmie before giving Delphi a chance at defeating it. Zeus fired thin lances of electricity at the water-type, which it easily evaded with Rapid Spin. Zeus got more and more frustrated until he finally tagged the creature.

Starmie's limbs froze up and it went tumbling to one of the circular platforms. Sparks danced on its jewel as it spasmed and jerked due to the effects of paralysis.

Ash saw his chance. "Electro Ball!"

He'd never seen his friend perform the strange move before, so he decided to try it this time. Zeus willed his energy to collect at the orb on his tail until a medium-sized orb crackling with electrical energy formed at it. The Flaaffy swished his tail and the sphere was launched at his opponent.

Starmie got up at that moment and the electrical sphere slammed into its jewel. Starmie gurgled in pain as it was electrocuted by the attack, but Misty decided she'd had enough.

"Swift!" she ordered angrily.

Ash knew there was no dodging that. Swift was a unique move that followed its targets like homing missiles – it was very similar to Magical Leaf, its grass-type counterpart. He quickly recalled an already tired Zeus, and the star-shaped rays of energy exploded against the platform he was standing on.

"Good job, buddy," Ash told the pokeball in his hand. "It's time you take a rest."

He looked at Delphi on his shoulder. Delphi chirped and hopped onto the platform nearest to her trainer.

Misty raised an eyebrow sceptically, but didn't say anything. "Starmie, finish off that Natu quickly. Swift!"

"Night Shade!" Ash ordered. "Destroy each and every one of those things!"

Delphi blasted each and one of the homing rays with powerful black beams of energy. The only downside was that Starmie burst through the veil of smoke created and slammed into Delphi with its spinning body.

Ash winced as Delphi was hurled several metres back, but she managed to hop back up. She shrieked indignantly and fired a Night Shade at Starmie, who easily flew out of the way.

"Teleport/Night Shade combo!" Ash shouted.

"Dodge!" came Misty's command.

Delphi kept teleporting over the field, blasting at Starmie with Night Shades, but Starmie was still fast, even with the paralysis. It managed to avoid half a dozen of the ghostly attacks before Delphi tagged it on the gem and pushed it a few feet.

"Hydro Spin!" Misty ordered. Starmie's limbs tensed up and the tips of its appendages were filled with wa—

—Starmie twitched painfully as its muscles contracted too tight from the paralysis it was suffering. Ash took his chance and bellowed, "Shadow Ball!"

The sphere of ectoplasmic energy slammed into Starmie's jewel and knocked it to the pool. Starmie was still twitching uncontrollably for a moment or so, allowing Delphi to hit it with another Shadow Ball. The jewel on its body was now glowing dimly, signifying that it was low on health.

Misty chewed her lip nervously. "Recover!"

Ash blanched. If Starmie successfully pulled of the move, it was be fully healed in no time flat. "Don't let it, Delphi! Night Shade!"

Starmie took off like a helicopter, its gem glowing white as it began to wash healing energy over its body. Delphi hopped after it at top speed, firing Night Shades, but it vain. From what he was seeing, Starmie was already half-healed by now.

Delphi finally teleported right next to where Starmie was going to be and struck its limbs with a Night Shade. The healing process stopped immediately, but some of its bruises had faded. Delphi used Starmie's body as a launching pad to leap onto one of the platforms, but Misty wasn't having it.

"Hydro Pump!"

Delphi shrieked in pain as a close range Hydro Pump slammed into her small body and sent her hurtling away before she crashed into the pool. Ash feared for her, but a second later she teleported onto the nearest platform. She was panting and her entire body was drenched.

"Swift Spin!" Misty said. Starmie spun at top speed and scattered half a dozen star-shaped rays of energy that instantly began to home in on the Natu.

"Dodge!" Ash cried out.

Delphi teleported the second a few days were about to hit her, and they exploded on the platform, but the rest quickly changed direction and sped towards Delphi's next location.

Ash winced as a few stars slammed into his Natu, then continued their relentless pursuit. He had to find a way to get rid of them...

An idea sparked in his mind. "Delphi, get to Starmie!"

She glanced back at him, like, _Are you crazy?_ , but nevertheless followed his orders. She teleported to Starmie, who had been gaining at her from the other side, and took the Rapid Spin that knocked her back. Thankfully, that was what Ash was waiting for.

He grinned when the Swift missed Delphi by a mere inch and proceeded to slam into Starmie. There was no time for the rays of energy to change direction and Starmie gurgled in pain from its own attack. Ash and Delphi had turned its own attack against it.

Misty scowled. "Recover, now!"

"Ominous Wind!" Ash said.

Delphi teleported in mid-air and exhaled a gust of ghostly energy from her beak. The winds formed a small, ghostly cyclone around Starmie and the pokémon gurgled frantically from the onslaught until the winds died down and let Starmie go away.

"Drill Peck!" he roared. "Aim for the jewel!"

Delphi leaped at Starmie with all her strength while corkscrewing like a drill. Delphi slammed dead-centre into Starmie's jewel with so much force that it _cracked_ and sent the water-type flying into the wall of the gym, where it crashed and slumped down in defeat. The cracked jewel blinked a few times before it stopped completely.

Violet called it. "Starmie is unable to battle!" she declared. "Natu wins! Victory goes to challenger Ketchum!"

"Yes!" Ash felt a wave of joy rush over him. It felt even better than his first gym battle against Brock, but maybe because this one was much more intense and closer than the previous one. Both his pokémon had taken a lot of damage and Delphi had even come close to fainting.

Ash recalled Delphi, who was struggling to keep standing. He pressed the pokeball to his lips, which were curled up in a smile. "You did amazing, girl."

Misty recalled Starmie and walked over to Ash with a huge smile on her face. "It's not everyday that someone manages to beat me," she said. "Great job."

"Starmie and Goldeen were really good, too," Ash complimented wholeheartedly. "I'm pretty sure Goldeen would've been able to knock out Zeus with a bit more training."

Misty nodded. "Yeah. My sisters just got him a few weeks ago, but he's pretty strong." She shook her head. "Anyway, that's enough of me. Here's your—"

"Prize!" Violet interrupted with a squeal. She had both her palms open; one had a teardrop-shaped badge while the other had a light-blue floppy disc. "Here is your Cascade Badge—" she pressed it in Ash's open palm, "—and here is the complimentary TM!"

Ash received the two objects eagerly. He put the Cascade Badge in his pocket for now – it would go in his badge case later – but held the floppy disc in his hand. "What TM is it?"

"Scald," Misty said simply. "It's a more powerful version of Water Gun, but the major difference is that the user releases boiling hot water. It sometimes leaves quite a burn."

"Great." Ash grinned. He couldn't wait for Hydrus to evolve into a Golduck so that he could teach him the new move. "Thanks a lot."

"Where are Daisy and Lily?" Misty asked Violet suddenly.

"Oh, they're still sleeping in the bleachers, those lazybones," her sister replied.

"Like you aren't one," Misty muttered darkly.

Violet pouted. "Am not, you runt!"

"Don't call me runt!"

"Okay, runt," Violet teased. Misty simply groaned and rolled her eyes.

A question popped in Ash's head. "Wait, aren't you participating in the Indigo Conference this year?" he asked Misty.

"Yes," she answered. "So?"

"I mean..." He looked confused. "But you're a gym leader. Will they even allow you to collect badges?"

Misty smirked. "As of now, I've got the Boulder, Cascade (obviously), Soul, Volcano and Rainbow Badges," she told smugly to an awestruck Ash. "I've still got to beat Giovanni, Sabrina and Lt Surge. Giovanni and Sabrina are monsters, so I have to train up the rest of my team for real, and Surge is just a dick." She scowled when she mentioned the ex-soldier's name.

"The only downside is that the rest of the gym leaders use their _real_ teams, so I have a tough time beating them," she told Ash. "I've had to ask Koga for a rematch and Surge has kicked my ass thrice by now – four, actually. I forgot last Thursday."

Ash smiled. "Maybe I'll get to battle you and _your_ real team," he told her.

She grinned fiercely. "Don't expect to win, though! I'm winning that Cup if it's the last thing I do!"

Ash snorted. "We'll see."

XxXxX

His team greeted him with a cacophony of sounds. Ash looked at each and every one of them, grinning hard. "Look what we won today," he told them, and he fished the badge out.

Their team cheered when they saw the teardrop-shaped badge held between Ash's fingers. Zeus looked pretty happy with himself and so did Delphi. They both received their teammates' cheers and congratulations warmly.

The only one who looked confused was Hydrus, who tilted his head in bewilderment as he considered the strange object. "It's a gym badge," he told his newest friend. "If you win one, it shows how strong you are."

With that news, Hydrus went off to congratulate Delphi and Zeus for their victory in a series of quacks. Ash couldn't hold back a laugh as he saw them act like one big, happy family.

He considered his next move. He wanted to head to Vermillion not only to catch the St Anne, which was docking at the city in a month's time, also to challenge Vermillion's notoriously powerful gym leader – Lt Surge. From the way everyone was talking, he seemed like Giovanni-material, but Ash knew that wasn't the case. Surge was just one of those people that intimidated people into becoming nothing more than flopping Magikarp, but he certainly wasn't a pushover and Ash would take him seriously. There was a reason he was considered one of Kanto's top eight gym leaders.

With that, he and the rest of his team proceeded to devour their lunch. As smirked. If there was one thing they all had in common – Ash included – it was their appetite. He made a mental note to pack some extra food for the journey that lay ahead.

Ash recalled his pokémon and stepped out of the Pokémon Centre, making sure to restock his supplies before he hit the road. He briefly wondered how different it would be in the wilderness without Jack or Natalie by his side but he dispelled the thought and smiled.

It was _his_ journey, after all.

XxXxX

 **Hey, guys! I hope you enjoyed the chapter as much as I did. I really liked writing this chapter, which is why I worked on it double time so that it could come out earlier than expected.**

 **I honestly spent a lot of time deciding what water-type Ash should get. It was first Krabby, then Psyduck, then Mudkip, then back to Krabby, then Poliwag and then finally Psyduck. I hope you guys are happy with my choice!**

 **Gary makes a special appearance! Gary is not a dick rival to Ash, but he also isn't like those shitty rivals like Brendan/May, Hau, Calem/Serena, etc. Gary is the competitive rival who is still friendly to Ash and is a jerk only to Jack because he doesn't deem him 'worthy'.**

 **Ash gets his ticket to the St Anne, and I need some help here. I'll need OCs for a tournament I'm planning to keep during the St Anne Arc. Frankly I'll be using only five or six of them, but if there are some that catch my eye I'll use them for a later tournament I've planned.**

 **The rules for OC submissions: give me a brief description of the character, age, gender, behaviour, etc. They should be two to four badges power wise – if they are stronger than expected I'll weaken them up and use them. No OP and legendary pokémon and take it easy on the Shinies as well. List six pokémon and I'll choose which ones should stand in for battles. You can even choose international pokémon because I want most of the OCs to be rich brats XD**

 **Side note: updates for Trainer: Kanto Arc will be slow till March, because I'm having my twelfth grade going on and I really need to study for my finals. Sorry for the disappointment, and the story's not being abandoned, just don't expect updates as quick as previously :)**

 **Anyways, thank you for your support! Here are the review responses for chapter three:**

 **Mewmaster89: I can not wait it's getting good and will Ash get an Eevee.**

 _-For that, you'll have to wait and see ;)_

 **Vvethsuvan: This story is interesting and well written. Though some characters rub me the wrong way. If I was in Ash's situation, I would've ditched them.**

 **Besides that, this has a lot of potential.**

- _Thank you for the kind words! And, yes, Ash had 'ditched' Jack and Natalie. He's on his own now._

 **Rockingchampif: Awesome chapter great story so far i like the pokemon ash have exotic pokemons not native to kanto...this chapter reminded me of the fanfic the challenger i guess you were inspired by that one ...having few pokemon good pokemon is a great way to go...**

 _-Yes, Challenger was one of the things that made me rewrite my original story. Darkfire1220 has an unnatural ability to give a good pace to his story. As for having few pokémon, Ash certainly will catch a good amount of pokémon, but not so many that he'll be overcrowded with them._

 **Crazily Insane One: Awesome. I've been waiting for you. Nomad was on my favorites for a long time. That's how I keep track of stories I like. It's my 3rd most favourite story after The Traveler and The Challenger. Considering this is written by the author of Nomad I'm not surprised the story is so awesome. While I'm disappointed you chose Mareep over the multitude of other Electric Pokemon available. It's still quite good considering the diverse range of moves it has access to. And Clefairy! You rock dude. Clefairy maybe slightly girly but I find it to be one of my favorites. Though it is rarely seen in Fanfiction. Dratini is obviously my favorite dragon type but I don't think you'll be giving Ash that... Or will you? Would be pretty awesome if Ash went solo after Cerulean since it will allow things to change up a bit. But if he doesn't that's fine too. I do hope he'll get the other 2 starters. Charizard is my all time favorite of Ash's Pokémon. It almost feels OP but I can't help it. No matter what anyone does. Charizard will remain at the top of my list for fire types. I'm fine if he doesn't get Squirtle. Give him 2 fire types if need be. But give him a Charizard for sure. Pretty please?**

 _-The praise and kind words are what really keep me writing! I'm rely happy that you think the Nomad was on top with Challenger and Traveller, but I've still got a long way to go. As for choosing Mareep, Ampharos is my personal favourite because Mega Ampharos is a beast, however beautiful it looks, lol. I was strongly leaning towards choosing Pikachu, but I decided to think of something original. Plus, Ash's brother, Red, already has one and if I gave Ash Pikachu after giving him both Poliwag and Bulbasaur it would seem like I was giving him his manga team. Elekid was given to Paul and I don't like the Voltorb or the Magnemite line very much. And so Mareep was my choice._

 _As for Clefairy, it really isn't used much in fanfiction and is a great asset in battle. I also wanted to give Ash a counter to dragon-types. Speaking of dragons, no, Ash won't be getting a Dratini, although I have decided on giving him a dragon in Kanto. You'll just have to wait and see what it is :)_

 _You got your wish! As for catching Charmander, I'm debating over the entire thing because I've already chosen Ash's fire-type for the region. I love Charmander and it breaks my heart to see Ash ignore him on the rock and leave him to die :'( However, if Ash doesn't get Charmander it'll probably go to someone else. I'm not that cruel._

 _Anyway, thank you for the long review! I hope you like Trainer more than The Nomad and there will surely be more to come._

 **Thanks for reading!**


	5. The Shockdown

**A/N: For those of you who have already read chapter four before this update, do not that I have replaced Poliwag with Psyduck and uploaded the renewed version of chapter four right now, so don't be confused if I refer to Hydrus as a Psyduck.**

 **With that being said, enjoy chapter five! This one came earlier than expected (because I love you guys so much) and I hope you guys like it! RR!**

XxXxX

 _Chapter Five: The Shockdown_

Ash walked along route 5. It had been four since he'd left Cerulean City so that he could reach Vermillion. There were quite a number of trainers along the way, most of whom Ash challenged and won against.

At his side, Hydrus waddled slowly, occasionally pausing to inspect mundane things like daisies and blades of grass. The reason Ash had let him out was so that the two of them could bond faster, although Ash got ticked off whenever the Psyduck paused in their travel.

Delphi was, unsurprisingly, perched on his shoulder, although Ash only let her out for some time before her increased weight made his shoulder ache. The bird was massive for a Natu, and was at the moment double the size of an average of her species. It was a wonder that she hadn't evolved by now, but Ash assumed that it would only be a day or two before the metamorphosis would occur.

His shoulder was really starting to ache now, so he stopped and knelt down, allowing Hydrus to catch up and Delphi to hop on the ground. Ash caressed his aching shoulder while Hydrus looked at him quizzically with his innocent eyes. Ash could help but smile internally at that.

He looked at Delphi sadly. "Sorry, girl, but my shoulder's aching really bad. I'll have to recall you now, okay? I'll let you out when we stop for lunch."

Delphi sighed – can birds sigh? – and allowed her trainer to return her in the pokeball. Suspended animation wasn't her favorite thing, but for the sake of her trainer and his aching shoulder she allowed herself to be returned.

Ash attached the pokeball on his belt and stood back up, adjusting the straps of his backpack. He grinned at Hydrus. "Just you and me, huh?"

Ash couldn't help but laugh as Hydrus quacked and nuzzled against his shin. He was so cute.

Just then, a voice, all high-pitched and uneven, cried out, "I challenge you!"

Ash whipped around and rolled his eyes as he saw a young kid, his age, point dramatically at him. Hydrus and Ash both stared at him – he had six pokeballs on his belt, and he looked really scrawny, and a lot less fit than most of the kids his age would look.

Ash wasn't in a mood to battle, because most of his pokémon were tired from the numerous challenges of the morning, but the kid's voice was really annoying and he figured that that unless he gave him what he wanted he'd continue to ask, and complain, too.

"Okay." Ash sighed. "One on one?"

The other trainer grinned so wide that Ash was scared his face would rip in half. He stared at Ash for a few second and then unclipped a pokeball from his belt and enlarged it to its original size.

Ash looked at the Psyduck by his side. Battles would not only give him experience but also help with his psychic-moves-using dilemma. "Hey, bud. You wanna take this?"

Hydrus gave the dopey equivalent of a shrug. The water-type waddled in front of his trainer, then stared determinedly at his opponent.

The other kid snorted. "What the heck is that? You think that little thing's gonna win against _me_?"

Ash glared at his statement. "Send out your pokémon. I've got better things to do that defeat arrogant trainers."

The kid scowled. "Krabby, I choose you!"

The ball snapped open and sent out an average-looking crustacean out on the ground. The Krabby had tough, red armor just like the rest of its species, and it clicked its claws menacingly.

"Water Gun!" Ash yelled out. Hydrus spewed a blast of high-velocity water at Krabby, but the crustacean didn't even seem fazed when the jet slammed against it sturdy armor.

"Metal Claw, Krabby!" the kid yelled.

"Dodge and use Scratch," Ash countered.

Krabby scuttled towards Hydrus with glowing claws, but the Psyduck leapt out of the way at the last second. Ash frowned a bit when he saw that Hydrus nearly tipped over from the jump, but he waddled over to Krabby with his arm glowing white.

Krabby wasn't even fazed from the Scratch that Hydrus delivered to him, instead choosing to follow its trainer's commands and slam a pincer which was glowing blue at Hydrus. Ash recognized the move as Crabhammer, but he barely got out the command to dodge when Krabby sent Hydrus flying away.

"Quick!" Ash's opponent cried. "Metal Claw!"

"Hydrus!" Ash yelled hastily, but his Psyduck was still struggling to get up. It was only when Krabby slashed its metallic claws at him did Hydrus jump away, effectively avoiding the move.

"Water Gun!" Ash said. Hydrus nodded, opening his beak to spit another blast of water at Krabby.

"Block it!" Krabby's trainer shouted. The crustacean held its claws up as a shield, but it still grimaced as the Water Gun pushed it foot away.

Hydrus waddled towards Krabby, who was trying to push itself up from the ground. "Scratch!" Ash called out.

Hydrus leapt into the air, then raked his claws against Krabby, who winced a little from the pain but didn't do anything else. Hydrus swished his arm at Krabby once again, aiming at its thin legs—

As fast as a viper Krabby caught the arm in its claw and lifted the Psyduck from the ground, and Hydrus was spun in a graceful arc before he was slammed into the ground, earning a quack of pain.

"Crabhammer!" the kid yelled out. "Follow up with Vice Grip and then Metal Claw!"

Despite Ash's frantic cries to dodge, Hydrus lay down as Krabby first slammed its pincer into his body, then fiercely pinch him and then rake metallic claws against the Psyduck, who did nothing but quack and flail in pain before laying still.

Ash sighed and recalled Hydrus, then paid the prize money to the winning trainer. The kid cockily took the prize money and drawled about how he was going to win the league, but Ash walked out of there quickly in fear of blowing a fuse at the annoying boy.

XxXxX

Ash found a nice spot to spend the afternoon before hitting the road and settled down. He'd gotten used to not having Natalie or Jack with him, what with five days of travelling alone, but he still had that pang for having either of them at his side.

Once he was done preparing sandwiches for himself, Ash released his family. Zeus yawned, Saur growled, Delphi chirped and Luna hummed, while Hydrus struggled to stay standing and Ash had to catch him in order to stop him from falling. All of them had a morning of battles and he'd completely forgotten to heal them up.

Ash took out a bunch of potions from his medicine pouch and got to work. Luna had a burn which she'd received from a Growlithe, but Ash quickly wiped it out with a burn heal. Ash popped a revive capsule in Hydrus' mouth and then sprayed a few potions before allowing the medicines to perform their task.

He opened several cans of pokémon food for his pokémon while the potions were healing them up, which happened fairly quickly, so Ash decided to have a quick lunch before setting off once again. His team settled down a few minutes later and they all dug in at the same time.

Zeus and Saur had already eaten their fill in a matter of minutes and were curled up by his feet. Luna was taking her time with the nutrient-filled pellets, humming quietly to herself. Delphi had only eaten a few pieces of pokémon food before she'd angrily hopped away and fixed a nearby dandelion with a steely glare. Ash expected it was due to the evolution pains, and made a mental note stock up on some once he reached the Saffron City Pokémon Centre.

Hydrus was looking blankly at his bowl of food. Ash was worried at the pace at which he was eating; the duck was picking one nutrient-filled pellet per minute and chucking them into his bill before chomping noisily.

Zeus had now woken up from his short nap and was chuckling evilly to himself. Ash had never seen an odder sight – the image of a crazily mischievous Flaaffy was now fixed in his mind. Zeus was rubbing his palms together as he devised a new prank (which was, in truth, the same one that he'd performed throughout) and his targets.

Saur was sleeping right next to him and was cranky from unfinished naps. Hydrus _could_ be a possible target for his prank, but the Flaaffy foresaw the outcome. He was a water-type, and was a newbie. He could cut the dopey creature some slack.

The next option was Luna, but she was very nice and sometimes gave him her snacks if he behaved well with others so Zeus immediately crossed her out. No way was he missing out on extra snacks!

Then was Ash. The only problem was that his trainer would most likely get angry and be annoyed with him, which he did not want. Which meant…

Whether he was being brave or simply foolhardy, Zeus creeped a good distance towards Delphi and let a small charge dance on his paw. Such a jolt would simply jar someone out of their senses and wouldn't hurt a bit, so Zeus let it fly.

Unfortunately, he'd picked the wrong person to pull a practical joke on. Saur was resistant to electric attacks and just growled lightly while Luna didn't do anything in return – she was just calm that way. Hydrus simply kept away from Zeus most of the times.

But Delphi was not fond of pranks, especially since she'd met Zeus. She normally kept quiet, but this was pushing it. Especially since she was already in an aggressive state due to the effects of nearing evolution.

Ash practically heard Delphi blow a fuse.

Zeus grunted as a fierce Shadow Ball blew him off the ground and he rocketed in the sky before crashing on the ground harshly. Delphi shrieked angrily, her normally-calm eyes bloodshot and wide with burning rage. She ruffled her feathers and hopped onto a large boulder before firing another Shadow Ball that ruthlessly slammed into Zeus' torso.

"Stop it!" Ash yelled, rising up from his spot, but before he could make another move a bolt of fierce lightning slammed into Delphi, blasting her off the rock. Zeus bleated angrily and his body sparked with electricity. He expected some kind of retort, but an overpowered Shadow Ball was pushing it. He warily watched Delphi, who was glaring back at the Flaaffy.

A blob of alien energy sped towards Zeus, who expertly dodged the attack, which hit the ground near Saur and exploded. Saur woke up for half a second and, once he saw the ongoing events, immediately went back to sleep.

Black beams of ectoplasmic energy met a bolt of electricity, resulting in a small explosion which ripped the air. Delphi shrieked and launched herself at Zeus for a Drill Peck, but her opponent released another surge of electricity that slammed into her and blasted her away. Ash instinctively ducked down and rose up a moment later, a fierce order at the tip of his tongue, before they all stopped from a blinding light.

They watched, transfixed, as Delphi began to grow in size by a significant amount. Her wings began to grow at a tremendous rate, spread and unfurled in all their glory. Her small beak doubled, turning much sharper and slightly hooked, and the red crest on the back of her head began to grow in length while another one sprouted. When the light finally faded, Delphi opened her hooked beak and let out a deafening shriek.

Ash was so awestruck by her evolution that he didn't even remember the mock fight. The Xatu shrieked again and spread her wings, giving a powerful flap that sent her into the air. The rest saw her fly gracefully into the air before she made an awkward U-Turn and sped back at them, this time corkscrewing at a blinding speed.

Ash watched as the Xatu blurred next to him and jabbed Zeus with her powerful beak. Zeus bleated in surprise as the Drill Peck sent him flying, but not too far before a sphere of unearthly energy blasted him further away. The Flaaffy collided against a tree harshly, knocking down a few pieces of fruit before he slumped to the ground.

Delphi flapped her wings and glanced at her unconscious opponent with a smug expression. Saur, Ash and Hydrus were gaping at the avian while Luna was giggling giddily to herself. Finally, after what seemed like eternity, the Xatu slowly descended, where she ultimately landed on the ground, albeit roughly.

Ash blinked. Once his surprise finally wore off, he grinned in delight.

The Xatu in front of him was more than he could've hoped for. The bird stood as tall as Ash and chirped in satisfaction as she examined her new body. She unfurled her wings, making a few experimental flaps that sent her a few feet in the air before she fell down and kicked up some dust.

Ash walked over to her (after he'd revived Zeus, of course), along with the rest of his team. Hydrus stared at Delphi with wide eyes and quacked as Delphi pulled the Psyduck closer with her wing. The duck stood still for several seconds before waddling up to the Xatu and quacking excitedly at her.

Saur trotted over to Delphi and made a happy growl, which Delphi returned with a soft chirp. Luna hummed serenely as she floated over to her teammate using the lunar essence stored in the Clefairy's 'wings'.

The only one who didn't congratulate Delphi was Zeus, who was recovering from the previous fight. Once Ash was sure he was okay, he nodded at Delphi approvingly. "You look amazing, girl. You've finally evolved."

The Xatu chirped a soft note and her sharp eyes gleamed with delight, for she finally had all the raw power she so desperately needed to keep up with Saur and Zeus. Now she had caught up with them, and she knew it.

Ash noticed Saur leering aggressively at his newly-evolved companion, Delphi sneering right back at the Ivysaur. Ash snorted. "So, you two want to have a practice battle?"

The pair didn't say anything. Saur and Delphi took several paces away from each other, then tensed up as they waited for their trainer to give a single word of command:

"Fight."

XxXxX

Thankfully, Ash reached Saffron City the next evening itself. His pokémon were tired from battling constantly and the boy was running out of potions and revives for his friends. And he had to get Delphi checked up for any complications regarding her evolution during battle.

He didn't want to stay in Saffron for long. He wanted to get to Vermillion City as fast as he could to challenge Lieutenant Surge. He considered battling Sabrina, but almost immediately decided not to after he remembered her notoriously powerful Alakazam, which had single-handedly wiped out an entire team of pokémon belonging to a trainer with five badges recently – he'd watched the video on the InTraNet. He was confident, but not overconfident. He didn't stand a chance against the psychic and he knew it.

Once he'd stocked up on supplies and contacted his mother, he collected his team from Nurse Joy and made his way to the Battle Club. It had been more than a month since he'd been in the training center and he wanted to make full use of the facilities provided.

He considered booking a private training room for the day, but decided against it. He didn't want to waste much money because he needed all the cash to purchase some good TMs for his team. He did have a range of TMs on hand, the ones Red had given him, but most of his team weren't compatible with most of Red's TMs. Ash wanted to teach Delphi Steel Wing, but not right now. He still had to check out her flight capabilities and whatnot.

Ash made his way to one of the various battlefields the Battle Club held. Saffron's Club is a whole lot bigger than the one in Pewter, Ash thought to himself. This battlefield looked like a professional one, but it was a normal dirt field with a few spires of rock jutting out of the ground.

Ash went and sat on one of the several seats around the battlefield. It was basically a long, cushiony bench with no back, but it would do. Don George – the manager – told Ash that to use a field the person required to write his name down on the register. Since he hadn't, Ash decided to just sit back and relax as he picked up some pointers from the older trainers, because he and his friends were obviously not up to their level.

As Ash sat down on the bench, surprised to find that he was the only spectator, one of the competing trainers walked up to the bleachers and scrutinised him for a few seconds, as if judging him. The guy looked about thirteen, with a slight goatee on his chin. The trainer sighed and put his hands on his hips before he spoke.

"All right, mate," he said. When Ash didn't say anything, he continued. "M'name's Winston Johnson. And you are…?"

"Ash Ketchum," Ash completed. "I just started out this year."

Winston grinned. "Listen, we've got a little double battle going, but one our players has just bitched out. D'you fancy making up the numbers?"

Ash's eyes widened. "Seriously?" He couldn't believe his ears. Someone was asking to participate in a double battle with senior trainers. His pokémon would get a ton of experience by watching stronger pokémon's tactics and the way they battled. He also weighed out the other reason for inviting him: that they just wanted a scapegoat to thrash and send home crying.

He decided to take his chances. "Okay, I'm in. Let me just get my stuff together."

Winston cracked another grin. "All right, mate. I'll see you on the field in ten."

XxXxX

"Everyone, this is Ash," Winston introduced once Ash arrived at the field. "He's taking Ollie's place for today and he's going to train with us. All right?"

Ash looked at the other two trainers, who tried to size him up. He tried to smile but he was so nervous about what they were all thinking about him.

"Fair enough." The one on Ash's side of the field shrugged once he was done with his assessment of Ash. "But give him an advantage, yeah? He's just a little kid, after all."

Ash flushed angrily at that, but didn't say anything.

"Okay," Winston called out from the other side. "Ash'll be allowed to use two of his pokémon, but the rest of us are going to be using only one each. Sounds good?"

The two other older boys murmured in agreement.

"Ash, you're with Lionel," Winston told him. Ash just nodded and enlarged a pokeball, the others doing the same. "Get ready, boys."

There were four simultaneous flashes of light as the pokémon were released. Ash had chosen Luna as his first battler. The others cocked an eyebrow as they saw the Clefairy materialize on the field, but didn't say anything else and turned their attention to their own pokémon.

Lionel's – Ash's partner – choice was a Houndoom. The hellish canine snapped its powerful jaws at the air once it was released from its confines. Luna watched Houndoom warily, but turned her attention to her opponents once they materialised.

Winston Johnson's choice was a small, brown creature that Ash immediately identified – an Eevee. Eevee was too famous a pokémon to not be recognised by anyone. It was an extremely popular pokémon due to its ability to evolve into several different evolutionary forms, a feat only possible due to the unstable genetic makeup it had.

Winston's partner, Ralph's, pokémon turned out to be a pokémon Ash had never seen. It was green, standing on two, pointed legs, and three horns on the top of its head. Two large roses – one red and the other blue – replaced its hands, and there were leaves extending from its shoulders like epaulettes.

Upon noticing Ash's confused expression, Lionel enlightened him. "That's a Roselia," he told the boy. "You ain't ever seen one before, kid?"

And then, without any more warning or Ash even responding to Lionel, they started.

And when it started, he should've taken one thing into consideration before accepting Winston's invitation.

They were men and Ash was a boy.

Their pokémon executed their orders flawlessly. It didn't even take a second for them to respond to their trainers and rushed at their opponents without a moments hesitation. It was a good thing that they were going easy, or else Ash and his friends would've been creamed a moment into the match.

Winston's Eevee slammed into Luna with a reckless, full-bodied charge attack that sent the Clefairy flying a few meters back, pulling Ash back into reality. He cursed under his breath as Luna got up, wincing, obviously hurt. "Okay, Luna, the next time Eevee comes use Sing!" he said, loud enough for his friend to hear.

The Clefairy nodded in determination, turning back as she waited for Eevee to charge once more in her direction, her fists curling. Winston raised an eyebrow at Luna's behaviour but didn't say anything.

"Quick Tail!" Winston yelled out. Eevee nodded, rushing at Luna with a burst of speed while its tail glowed silver.

Too late, Ash understood what was going to happen. Luna frantically dodged, identifying the move as Iron Tail, but Eevee front-flipped and slammed its tail into Luna's scalp. The Clefairy cried out in pain, her eyes watering as she stumbled back.

Nevertheless, she let loose her revenge. Luna murmured a centralised lullaby in Eevee's direction before the canine could rush away. Before it knew what was happening, Eevee slumped to the ground, asleep.

""Wake-Up Slap," Ash said, grinning. Luna raised an uncurled fist, ready to pummel Ee—

Suddenly, the Roselia jumped in the way and swiftly punched Luna with one of its arms, which was flowing purple – Poison Jab. Luna cringed in pain as she was sent flying into one of the spires of rock on the battlefield.

Ash mentally cursed himself. He'd momentarily forgotten that this was a double battle and let Roselia's presence out of his mind. He watched as Roselia rushed at Luna with another Poison Jab, only for the Clefairy to roll away in the nick of time and Roselia to jab the pointed rock.

Ash blinked in awe as the spire exploded into a hundred fragments from Roselia's punch. Roselia turned around in Luna's direction, scowling as Luna slugged the grass-type across the face with a Double Slap. Then—

A stream of scarlet flames soared towards Luna and Roselia, engulfing the both of them. Ash heard deafened shrieks of pain as Houndoom's Flamethrower continued to scorch them into oblivion.

Once the flames subsided, Ash saw Luna on the ground with Roselia, who looked a lot better than the Clefairy. At the same time, Eevee woke up from its slumber and glared at Luna for a second before lunging at her with a Bite upon Winston's orders.

"Luna, dodge!" Ash cried out.

"Flamethrower," he heard Lionel say.

Ash's eyes widened in shock and he glared at the older boy. "My Clefairy is in the line of fire!"

Lionel looked unconcerned. "You should've told it to get out of the way, kid. Houndoom, roast 'em to a crisp."

Houndoom spewed another torrent of flames, but Ash recalled Luna a second before the flames licked her. He could not let his pokémon undergo such torment, especially when they were out cold.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lionel bending a little and hissing in Ash's ear, "Not so easy against _real_ trainers, is it?"

Ash gritted his teeth. He knew Lionel had it in for him. But what could he do? That guy was a giant, and way stronger than Ash.

He shook his head and replaced Luna's pokeball with Hydrus'. He just needed to ignore the older trainer until the end of the battle.

The Psyduck burst out of the ball quacking, but his eyes grew a bit serious once he saw the three remaining pokémon on the field. "Hydrus, you're in a double battle. Houndoom is your partner, but hit it if it's in the way." He whispered the last part, mostly because he didn't want Lionel to hear it.

Hydrus stared at him for a few seconds before quacking in acknowledgement and scanned the battlefield. Roselia had somehow managed to survive two Flamethrowers but still looked worn out. Eevee was growling aggressively for such a cute pokémon, its brown fur coat singed.

"Water Gun!" Ash called. "Aim it at Eevee."

The Psyduck nodded, but, before he could fire the pressurised beam of water, Roselia rushed towards Hydrus and swiped at him with one of its flowers. Hydrus stopped the Water Gun midway and jumped back, slapping the huge, red flower away with his powerful arm.

"Fire Fang at Eevee," Lionel ordered.

"Counter with Shadow Ball," Winston commanded.

Houndoom opened its gaping maw, fangs flickering with flames as it rushed at Eevee, but the evolution pokémon leapt back a second before Houndoom was about to bite it and fired an orb of ghostly energy at the black canine. The Houndoom, unfortunately, snapped its jaws onto the Shadow Ball, resulting in a massive explosion that sent Houndoom whining in pain.

Roselia's trainer smirked. "Energy Jab," Ralph called out.

"Water Gun, keep it away!" Ash ordered.

Roselia raised one arm, forming an Energy Ball around the huge red flower that replaced its hand. With no time to lose it pushed itself from its spot and lunged at Hydrus with surprising speed.

Hydrus tilted his head, then opened his beak and spat a pressurized jet of water at Roselia. The thorn pokémon was unable to dodge the attack as it was running so fast and the Water Gun needed up slamming it in the face and obscuring its vision.

Roselia swung wildly, but it missed its mark by a mile. "Scratch," Ash ordered. Hydrus sprung at his opponent and raked the back of Roselia's head hard with his clawed hands.

Suddenly there was a blur of brown and Hydrus was pinned to the ground. Eevee sank its gleaming fangs into the Psyduck, who quacked in pain from the Bite attack. Then there was a rush of flames which engulfed both Hydrus and Eevee, but managed to push Eevee off the Psyduck.

Ash instantly whirled towards Lionel. "What is your problem?!" he asked the older boy angrily. "We're supposed to work together!"

Lionel raised an eyebrow. "So?"

Ash snapped. "Hydrus, Water Gun on Houndoom!" he shouted.

Hydrus looked hesitant, but nevertheless fired a stream of high-velocity and pressurized water at Houndoom, who roared in pain as it was pelted by the blast.

"Oi!" he heard Lionel cry. "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing, kid?"

"You didn't have a problem when your Houndoom was attacking my Clefairy!" Ash practically snarled.

Lionel glared at Ash, then snapped at his Houndoom. "Thunder Fang, full power!" he bellowed. "Fry that little duckie!"

Ash's eyes widened and he reached for Hydrus pokeball, when suddenly he felt a sharp pain along his arm.

Lionel was twisting his arm so that Ash had no way of returning Hydrus and saving him from the Thunder Fang. "Don't you dare return that little shit," he said. His voice sounded calm, but he sounded dangerous. "You made your choice, now he pays the price."

"Get off!" shouted Ash, digging his nails into Lionel's wrist to let him go.

"Trust me," Lionel said menacingly, twisting Ash's arm further. "You don't want to make me angry."

"Hey, Lionel!" yelled Ralph. "Go easy, mate, he's only a kid."

Then everything went pear-shaped.

Houndoom sank its electrified teeth into Hydrus' body, shocking the duck into unconsciousness, but the Houndoom still didn't let go. It was still gripping the Psyduck in its mouth, looking at Lionel expectantly.

Ash snarled as he saw Hydrus' unconscious form twitching under the continuous flow of electricity. He raised his leg and slammed it into Lionel's groin. The older boy gasped in shock and pain and immediately let go of Ash.

"Just leave me alone," Ash growled as he recalled Hydrus. He could feel that he might start crying. That would be the worst possible thing he could do right now.

He turned away and started walking.

He heard Winston and Ralph shouting his name, but he didn't care.

They'd had their fun with him. They'd just got him to train with them so that they could gang up on him and his pokémon. Why had he even said yes?

XxXxX

Ash slung his bag over his shoulder and headed for the Battle Club's exit. He was in no mood to train any further and he just wanted to heal up his pokémon before hitting the road again. There was nothing left to do here.

Suddenly he felt a tug on his bag, and he turned around.

"Is that it then, Ash?"

It was Winston. He'd come after him.

"Yes," Ash said shortly. "I'm getting out of here."

Winston groaned. "Ah, come on. We've only just got started. We need you, mate. You're a good trainer for your age."

Ash felt a surge of pride at the compliment, but the look of indifference never left his face. "Why should I come back? So that Lionel can keep bullying me?"

Winston sighed. "I know, Lionel can be a huge prat sometimes," he said. "Anyway, are you going to keep running every time you face some problem? You don't seem like the cowardly kind to me."

"Okay, I'll come, back," Ash said, finally resenting. "But I'm not teaming up with Lionel. If that's what you have in mind, forget about it."

"No problem," Winston replied, grinning. "This time, you're with me."

XxXxX

Funnily enough, Ash ended up having a rather good time with Winston and his buddies. Aside from defeating Ralph and Lionel several times, Ash and his team learnt several tips from the three experienced trainers. He found out that Roselia, Houndoom and Eevee were just the newest additions on their roster and that they had several powerful pokémon on their arsenal.

When the day was over, Ash bid goodbye to the others (except for Lionel, of course) and made for the Pokémon Centre. There was obviously no point in heading for Vermillion City now and, frankly, he and his pokémon needed to rest. Winston and his friends had certainly tired them out.

He had a hearty meal of steak and mashed potatoes while his pokémon had the same. They didn't like the standard pokémon food much and Ash decided that one meal wouldn't hurt. After dinner, he headed to his cabin, let loose his friends (Delphi was unsurprisingly awake) and leapt onto the bed after he was sure they were comfortable on their pillows and blankets.

Somehow, Hydrus had Luna had snuggled their way onto Ash's bed and fallen into a deep slumber without his knowledge, for he was already fast asleep.

It had been a long day, after all.

XxXxX

Ash stopped in his tracks as drops of water began splattering on his head, then ground out loud as there was a sudden rush of water from the skies.

He hated the rains.

Not wanting to get soaked, he hastily unzipped his bag, snatched his yellow raincoat from it and quickly wore it as the rain began to pour even harder. He sighed in relief when he was fully covered by the raincoat, but his irritation at the water stinging his face never left him.

"Damn, I hate this weather," the boy next to Ash commented as he put on a raincoat of his own. Ritchie Reynolds made a face as he wiped the water from his face.

Ash had met Ritchie twelve hours ago, when he stumbled across the auburn-haired boy and demanded a challenge excitedly, only pausing when he realised how much the other trainer resembled him. Ritchie's jacket and cap were remarkably similar to Ash's, and they even had the same messy hair. The only difference was that Ritchie's colour scheme was green while Ash's was red, and that he had auburn hair instead of Ash's black.

After the one-on-one battle had ended in Ritchie's favour, Ritchie had proposed the idea of travelling to Vermillion City together. Ash immediately agreed, mostly because Ritchie was a fun person to travel with and both of them could learn a thing or two from each other. They immediately hit it off and continued on their journey.

Ash cursed and shielded his face from the painful stings of rain, glaring down at Hydrus, who was prancing around happily as he felt the coolness against his skin. "I'd pay anything to be a water-type right now," he grumbled to Ritchie.

The other boy chuckled. "Let's go," he told Ash. "The map shows that there's a Pokémon Centre twenty minutes away from here."

Ash nodded and began walking with Hydrus and Ritchie by his side. He'd know that it would rain later today, thanks to his pokégear, but he could never prepare himself for such bad weather. He hated the rain with a passion, because he always got annoyed and uncomfortable when wet mud entered his sneakers.

He watched in jealously as Hydrus kept leaping from puddle to puddle, creating huge splashes in his wake. Ash kept a good distance away from the Psyduck so that his feet wouldn't get drenched from the splashes.

Ash and Ritchie made small talk as they continued to walk to the Pokémon Centre. Aside from grumbling about their situation, they shared half-made strategies and tactics to be used in battle. Ritchie seemed to have a good knack for these things, just like Ash.

Ash was in the middle of explaining Zeus' Cotton Stun when Ritchie suddenly froze in his tracks. Ash stopped too, frowning at his companion while making sure that his Psyduck hadn't wandered too far away. He waved his hand in front of Ritchie and snapped his fingers, finally gaining the other boy's attention.

"Hey," Ash said, concerned. "What's up?"

Ritchie blinked, pointing at straight ahead of him. "Am I seeing things or is there a Charmander on that boulder?"

That caught Ash's attention, and his head snapped in the direction Ritchie was pointing at. Sure enough, there was a large boulder and a small, orange form was lying curled on top of it.

Ash could barely identify the creature when a small flame flickered slightly, although he couldn't discern it easily. The flame was a mere dot and Ash had to focus properly to see it.

Ash blinked in awe and surprise. The creature certainly fit the descriptions of a Charmander, but it was hard to admit it was real because Charmander were rarely found in the wild. They populated volcanoes a harsh mountains along with their evolved forms, Charmeleon and Charizard. Charmander were rare because the breeding mothers were highly territorial and would kill if they thought their offspring were in danger. Which was why Professor Oak distributed Charmander that were bred in captivity.

Ash hastily fished out his pokédex and scanned the orange figure to make sure that he hadn't accidentally had drugs.

A few seconds were all it took to correctly identify it as a Charmander and Ash nodded at Ritchie. They rushed towards the large boulder to inspect it, where Hydrus was already leaping around.

Said Charmander was in pretty bad shape. It had half-healed scabs and its bruises were fresh; it had a particularly nasty patch of blue right above its half-closed eyes. The Charmander was breathing heavily and its eyelids kept flitting every few seconds. The lizard's tail flame was barely alive and it looked like as if a good blow would put it out for good.

Ash's chest tightened; they had a serious situation on hand. Ritchie had a pained expression on his face and he grimaced at Ash. "We need to take it to the Centre!" he yelled, as the rain picked up and got louder.

"It doesn't have much time," Ash muttered. "Let's go!"

Ritchie abruptly picked up the Charmander from the boulder, but Ash had a better idea. He took off his raincoat and wrapped it around the Charmander, especially paying attention to the tail flame. Ash ignored the fact that he was getting drenched; he had more pressing matters on hand.

He hastily returned Hydrus and took off with Ritchie, the two of them holding Charmander close to their chests. As time increased, the Charmander's flame was dwindling and its breathing was quickening. They had to get it to the Pokémon Centre before it got too late.

As fate would have it, Ash stepped into an especially wet patch of mud and conveniently slipped, landing face-first into the ground. He felt a spike of pain shooting up his head as his chin slammed into the ground. Ash groaned, shifting a pushing himself up, but slipping once again on the ground, earning another moan of discomfort and agony.

Ash looked up and saw Ritchie staring at Ash, torn between helping his newly-made friend and rushing the critical Charmander to the Pokémon Centre, but the dark-haired boy made the decision for him. "Go!" he gasped. "I'll be fine."

Ritchie reluctantly nodded and immediately rushed in the opposite direction. Ash watched, anxious, as Ritchie's form kept getting smaller and smaller until he was engulfed by the darkness.

Ash sighed in relief, then groaned as he inspected his muddy clothes. "Son of a..."

XxXxX

Twenty minutes later, Ash barrelled into the Pokémon Centre, creating an accidental ruckus. Heads turned in his direction and snickers exploded in the main lobby as they saw his incredibly dirty clothes. Ash simply ignored the laughs and rushed towards the reception, where he had finally located Ritchie.

Ritchie snapped his head in Ash's direction when he heard footfalls getting louder. "Ash!" he said with a grin. "Glad you made it!"

Ash waved the remark aside. "How's Charmander?"

At that, Ritchie's expression faltered and his face turned grim. "Nurse Joy said that he's in critical condition," he said slowly. "She said his vitals are low and that there's been internal bleeding, but he'll survive."

Ash heaved a heavy sigh at that and slumped against the wall. It felt like he'd been holding in that breath for eternity, but he was just worried about the Charmander. It looked in horrendously bad shape and seeing any pokémon have such brutal injuries made Ash hurt.

"Now that we've got that out of the way," Ash said, "why don't we get our rooms? I've been waiting for this moment all week!"

Ritchie nodded and the two waited for Nurse Joy to appear, which didn't take long. The slim nurse seemed to be visually impaired in comparison to her sisters, because she wore thick, black nerdy glasses which seemed to make her look even prettier than normal.

"Good evening! What can I do for you?" she said cheerfully, albeit retching slightly when she noticed Ash's muddy clothes.

"Um, we'd like to book two rooms for the night, Nurse Joy," Ash said.

Joy nodded and asked for their trainer licenses, which the two readily handed over. It took only a couple of minutes for Joy to book two rooms for the trainers and she handed the keys over to the boys. Ash and Ritchie gratefully thanked Joy and were about to leave when Joy stopped them.

"Oh, and Mr Ketchum?" she said.

Ash perked up. "Yes, Nurse Joy?"

"Get yourself cleaned!" she suddenly shrieked. "I will not have you prancing around the Centre in those filthy clothes you're dressed in."

Ash apologised profusely and scarpered to his room.

XxXxX

After having a nice, pleasantly long bath (and washing off every last speck of dirt from his clothes) Ash decided to grab a bite. He swung by the front desk to pick up his pokeballs, then made for the Centre's cafeteria where he saw Ritchie waiting for him.

"This stuff is _good_ ," Ash said once he'd swallowed another mouthful of pepperoni pizza. He looked at it for a second, as if it was some prize diamond, before stuffing the rest of the slice into his mouth.

"I know," Ritchie replied halfway through his pizza. "The only other pizza I've ever had in my life is at Papa Tony's in Fromador City."

Ash smirked. "I guess you haven't had the best, then," he said. "My mom could outdo anyone, anytime, anywhere."

Ritchie stopped and frowned at his companion. "Everybody says that about their moms," he retorted. "I bet there are loads of better chefs out there."

Ash opened his mouth to make an angry rebuttal, but gratefully stopped as a particularly obnoxious conversation a table away drowned out their own. Ash dropped his pizza slice and turned around to give them a piece of his mind, but paused when he heard what they were talking about.

"'Mazin' collection ya got there, brah!" a burly thirteen-year-old muttered in awe.

"Like, super cool, man," a weedy looking boy added.

A pretty girl batted her eyelashes. "I would've dated you if Bryan didn't have a huge one," she hissed, earning a yelp of protest from the burly teenager and laughter from the other two boys at the table.

"Hey, I wouldn't mind having a sexy thing like you, but I'd be breaking the bro-code," an arrogant teen remarked.

Said teen seemed to be the leader of the crew. Ash's first thought was that he was a spoilt, rich kid. He had stylish clothes and a mass of oily, blue hair on his head, with expensive sunglasses propped on his forehead. His arrogant smirk just added to his haughty appearance, and, although he looked good for a guy, he seemed repulsive.

"Got any rare pokémon with ya, brah?" the burly teen asked.

"Yeah, man!" the weedy kid agreed. "Tell us what ya got there, Damien! I bet they're all strong."

"Of course they are," Damien scoffed. "I don't keep worthless shits with me. That's why I released that Charmander," he added.

Ash's eyes widened at that and he clenched his fists angrily. Only scum abandoned pokémon into the wild.

"Oh yeah, I remember," the girl of the group exclaimed. "Wasn't that the one who lost against a _Beedrill_?!" There was an explosion of laughter.

Damien smirked even wider. "That's the one!" he remarked gleefully. "I just couldn't keep up with that useless thing...I was getting it to evolve for _days_ , but whenever I tried to release it, that thing kept following me!" He gave a look like, _Can you believe it?_ "So I had to beat the crap out of it with my Machop and I left it on some nearby rock...I wouldn't be surprised if that weak thing dies—"

He'd had enough. Ash stormed in the teenager's direction, Ritchie right behind him, and pushed Damien's cronies aside before glaring at the arrogant trainer. Damien smirked back, but he looked a bit nervous.

"What's up with you, punk?" Damien sneered. "This is a private conversation. We ain't gonna allow shitheads like you even if y'all lick the crap off my ten-thousand pokédollars boots!" His lackeys sniggered at that.

"I wouldn't join your stupid group even if Arceus himself asked me to," Ash spat, disgusted by the teenager's behaviour.

Damien screwed up his face in distaste. "Then what're ya here for, punks?" the arrogant trainer's burly friend said.

"We're here to tell you that your Charmander's in the ICU because of what you did!" Ritchie snarled. "If we were even a bit late, it'd have _died_!"

Damien waved his hand dismissively. " _Psshhh_...So what? There'd at least be one less weakling in the—"

Damien never got to finish his sentence because Ash pulled him by his collar. It didn't matter that Damien was a lot bigger than him; the dark-haired boy was scarlet with rage and tool every ounce of restrain for him to not punch the vile trainer in his face.

Damien raised a balled fist, but Ritchie grabbed his arm and dug his finger into a pressure point, which caused the obnoxious boy to unfurl his fist and gasp in pain.

"What the hell are you—"

"Don't – even – think about it," Ritchie hissed.

"Oh yeah?" Damien smirked. "You really think that you two assholes can outmatch us? Mikey and Bryan will knock you and your pokémon out in a couple of seconds! Right?"

Mikey and Bryan nodded hesitantly.

"How _dare_ you?" Ash shouted. "How could you _hurt_ a pokémon like that?! First, you release it, not giving a care about what it must be feeling at being abandoned, but no!" Ash barked a sarcastic laugh. "You just _had_ to beat it up so ruthlessly that it could've _died_!"

By now everybody in the cafeteria was listening. Ash had created such a ruckus that Nurse Joy herself had arrived at the scene, a scowl on her pretty face.

"What in Origin is going on?" she asked. She glared at Ritchie, then Damien and then Ash.

Ash cast another scowl at Damien. "Ask him yourself, Nurse Joy," he said rather snappily.

Joy looked visibly shocked at the way Ritchie had talked to her, but she managed to turn to Damien. "Well?" she shouted. "Explain yourselves!"

Damien laughed nervously. "I-It's nothing, Nurse," he said with a smile. "N-nothing."

Ritchie snorted. "Since this spineless bastard is too scared to admit his faults," he said, "Let me tell you why this scuffle broke out, Nurse Joy. _This_ is the trainer who abandoned the Charmander I brought to you earlier! And _he's_ the one who left it in such a condition!"

Joy's eyes widened at that accusation and she glared at Damien. "Is that true?"

"O-of course not!" he stuttered in fright. "He's lying, Nurse!"

"Well, then I suppose you wouldn't mind giving me your pokédex for a moment," she said, eyeing him shrewdly.

"But—"

" _Now_ ," she demanded sternly.

Damien gulped, his entire body exuding anxiousness as he handed over the tablet-sized supercomputer to Joy.

Ash and Ritchie watched in gleeful anticipation as Nurse Joy inspected the device. Justice would be served in a few moments when Joy would realise the truth. The League had absolutely zero tolerance for pokémon abandonment and the offender would surely have his/her trainer license revoked and their pokémon released into the wild or have them distributed to promising trainers via a breeding facility. Ash could only hope for Damien to be arrested and be sentenced to prison.

Nurse Joy's calm appearance suddenly twisted into a venomous scowl and she looked up from the pokédex, eyeing Damien dangerously. "Well, get ready to go to juvie, _Mr_ Verres," she growled.

Damien's eyes began flitting towards the sliding doors of the Centre and it took only a second for Ash to realise what the abusive boy was up to. The second Damien twitched, Ash and Ritchie were on him like a pack of Growlithe.

"Let me go!" Damien wailed as he began to flail aimlessly in the duo's grip. " _Please_ , let me go!"

Joy snapped the pokédex close and strutted towards Damien. "You got your comeuppance," she muttered. "You've got only yourself to blame."

Tears streamed down Damien's chiselled face. Ash resisted the urge to laugh at the pathetic boy.

"Anyway," Joy said, "thank you for informing me, Mr Reynolds and Mr Ketchum. It looks like you've done another good thing today after all."

"We just did what any decent person would do," Ritchie said, shrugging.

Nurse Joy smiled. "I'd like to see the two of you in my office tomorrow," she told them. "I'll ring you two up and let you know. For now, get some sleep while I and Officer Jenny handle this offender." She jerked her head at Damien, who gulped nervously.

Ash nodded. Sleep sounded good to him.

Once he was back at his room, he let loose his friends in his room. Zeus bleated upon being sent out, Saur greeted in a growl, Hydrus quacked and Luna hummed serenely. It was only Delphi who didn't respond, instead choosing to stare right at Ash. The boy felt a bit weirded out by that, but he just figured that an evolution came with a personality change.

"Hey, guys," he said. He laughed when Hydrus leapt at his chest and pushed him to the bed. Before his room turned into a madhouse, Ash quickly told them that it was time to sleep and they complied. Zeus curled up on his pillow next to Saur, who had already fallen asleep. Hydrus had already dozed off on Ash's bed, while Luna absorbed some amount of lunar essence pouring through the window before she, too, was out cold.

The only one who was still awake apart from Ash was Delphi, who had taken to staring in the distance while hiding in the shadows. Ash watched her carefully before he broke the silence.

"Delphi?"

The Xatu didn't respond.

He frowned. "Is there something wrong?" he asked softly.

Slowly and steadily she turned, her eyes – those void-like eyes that sent shivers down his spine whenever she looked at him – seemingly boring right through his body as they held a glimmer of fear. There's something wrong with her, he decided. She's just too—

A split-second later, her head shook from each side the tiniest fraction. "Okay," he said slowly. "Are you going to remain awake all night, girl?"

A nod.

"Alright." He sighed, rubbing his eyes and yawning. "Good night, Delphi...I'll see you in the morning..."

With that, he slumped to the bed, and Delphi turned to the window, the fear in her eyes growing by each passing second.

XxXxX

Ash woke up at the crack of dawn with the intent to train harder than before. With a grin, he stepped into the shower and gasped as the cold rush of water from the shower energised him, pumping adrenaline through his body. He put on his now-clean travelling clothes before clapping his hands loudly and yelling at the top of his voice.

His pokémon woke up with a start at the cacophony he was producing. Saur scowled at his trainer for interrupting his sleep while Zeus simply bleated in greeting. The Psyduck on his bed whined at his harsh awakening while Luna looked up at Ash, ever-waiting for her trainer's commands.

Surprisingly, Delphi had stayed awake the entire night. It was unusually odd, since she'd always been one to have a good night's sleep, but ever since she'd evolved the Xatu had been acting...strange. All Ash could say was that she was much different than her previous self.

Nevertheless, Ash grinned at them. "Good morning, guys!" he said cheerfully. "Are you ready to train?"

A series of strange but eager sounds met his statement. Ash grinned wider, then recalled everyone save for Luna and Hydrus before heading for the cafeteria.

When he reached, he saw Damien's cronies from yesterday taking in low whispers. "Hey, guys!" he greeted. "How's Damien doing?"

His two lackeys scowled menacingly at him, but didn't do anything else. The girl of the group was staring at him like he'd just grown balls of steel.

Ash plopped down in a booth and released his pokémon. Zeus ate his fill in a matter of minutes and curled up by his feet under the table. Saur didn't eat much since he mostly photosynthesised instead of eating the tasteless nutrient-filled pellets, and Luna took her time while feeding Hydrus every few seconds. Delphi swallowed a few pieces but then performed her new hobby of staring out of the window.

Just as Ash was about to leave, he saw Ritchie walking towards him. The trainers smiled at each other and Ritchie sat at the other end of the booth, eyes roving over Ash's team.

"Quite a collection you've got there, Ash," Ritchie murmured appreciatively. "But I've only seen that Psyduck and Flaaffy of yours. Where'd you get your hands on a Clefairy, though?"

Ash grinned. "She came up to me in Mt Moon and asked if she could join my team. Who am I to say no?"

Ritchie chuckled. "Well, anyways, since you haven't seen my entire team...Come on out, guys!"

The three pokeballs in his hands snapped open and sent out beams of white energy from them. Ash watched as a Pikachu, a Butterfree and a Slowpoke formed near Ritchie.

"These are my friends," he said proudly. "You've already met Sparky—" his Pikachu chirped at his name, "—and the other two are Happy—" Ritchie pointed at the Butterfree "—and Floyd."

Ash waved at the trio, although he found their names a bit silly. "Nice to meet you guys!"

Sparky smiled in response while Happy trilled at Ash. As expected, Floyd the Slowpoke simply stared at him with blank eyes until Ash looked away, unnerved. Floyd seemed to be creepier than the rest of its kind.

"His reaction time is really long," Ritchie admitted quickly, "but we're working on that. But he battles pretty well and I'm glad he's my friend!

"Anyways, what are you going to do now?" he asked.

Ash shrugged. "Train, obviously. My buds are itching to have some battles right now. Isn't that right, guys?" Saur growled in response.

Ritchie grinned. "That settles it."

"Settles what?"

"That I'm going to train with you," he explained. "I came here pretty early so that we'd meet at breakfast and decide to train together. I figured we could exchange strategies, even help each other out with difficult techniques and stuff."

Ash frowned. He was one who liked his privacy, but the thing about exchanging strategies and helping each other mouth got him thinking. Just a while wouldn't hurt...

Ash nodded. "Okay, Ritchie. Just give me a few minutes and I'll be right with you."

Ritchie grinned and flashed a thumbs-up. "Great! I'll see you, then."

XxXxX

"Everyone, this is Ritchie," he said, introducing his new friend to his motley crew. "He'll be training with us today. Okay?"

He smiled when his friends nodded, then turned to face Ritchie, who pointed his hand at Ash's team. "Mind introducing me to the rest of your team?" he asked.

He nodded. "You've already met Zeus and Hydrus, so I'll introduce the rest to you. Meet Saur, Luna and Delphi!"

"You guys look great," Ritchie muttered. Saur puffed up proudly at that while the rest (except for Delphi) smiled at that comment. "I bet we'll learn a lot from each other during our training!"

They split into groups after that statement. Zeus was paired up with Sparky so that the two of them could learn Thunderbolt together. It was a step up from Thundershock and required a lot more firepower, but Ash was sure his friend would learn it by the time they reached Vermillion. Moreover, Zeus had the capability to learn Agility, a move that converted a pokémon's psychic potential into hormones that drastically increased its speed, so the Flaaffy could learn it from Sparky, who conveniently knew the move.

Hydrus was with Floyd. Ash was hesitant when he'd heard _that_ pairing, but Ritchie had assured him that Slowpoke were faster during combat. They were just slow – _extremely_ slow – otherwise because the dopey creatures liked to conserve energy.

Saur was learning Magical Leaf from Luna, while Happy was perfecting a move called Bug Bite. That left Delphi all alone, which was a good thing since he wanted to help her fly with her newly-developed wings.

"Hey, girl." Ash smiled as he walked up to the Xatu, who flinched when she heard her trainer's voice. "We're going to start training on your flight, okay?"

Delphi looked at him for a long moment, then chirped softly in acknowledgement. Her eyes kept flitting here and there and never stayed on Ash for more than a split-second second. He was seriously worried about her right now, but unless he could speak pokémon he couldn't understand everything she said.

"Is something bothering you, Delphi?" he asked, concerned. "It's okay, you can tell me."

There was that expression on her face that said she was going to tell him the ugly truth, and it scared him, but the next moment her face was calm and she gave a short nod. He didn't believe her for one second, but if she wanted to keep it with herself he wasn't going to question her. "Alright," he relented. "Let's go."

She chirped and he took several steps away from her until the boy and Xatu were a considerable distance away from each other. "Okay, Delphi," he said. "Just...do your thing."

Delphi nodded, then unfurled her wings, showing her accented body. Those designs that looked like eyes freaked him out, but he shook away that thought and focused his attention on Delphi, who flapped her wings experimentally before she took off.

With one powerful flap, she was off in the air. Ash squinted as his head snapped up so that he could keep up with his friend, who wobbled a fair bit to stay balanced. She felt completely out of her element as she gave several quick, rough flaps, determined to stay in the air.

Ash chewed his lip nervously. "Delphi, move a bit if you're okay with it!" he yelled.

She nodded, but Ash knew that she couldn't do it, what with the shakiness and balancing problems she was undergoing. Before he could call her down, she flapped her wings, producing rough surges that propelled her higher up. She flew faster than expected and stopped beating her wings for a few seconds so that she could glide, but, boy, was _that_ a wrong move.

Ash's heart jumped as he saw Delphi's body gliding straight _downwards_ instead of up and the large bird shrieked in surprise and indignation, her wings flailing. The Xatu was a hurtling comet but, before she could crash, the boy quickly took out a pokeball which shot a thin beam of red energy at the bird.

Ash let out a sigh of relief when the beam made contact with her when she was a mere foot from hitting the ground. He stared at the scratched pokeball for a second before he released Delphi once more. The Xatu appeared in a flash and instantly spread her wings, her eyes wide in alarm for a second before she realised she was safe.

Ash smirked. "We've got to work on your landings, girl."

She didn't complain.

XxXxX

True to his word, Ritchie's Slowpoke was much faster while training or battling than he was in his free time. Floyd and Hydrus had spent the past hour refining their techniques and had started on a bit complicated one: Water Pulse.

Water Pulse was a move that involved the user to create a large sphere of water with a strong energy pulse, then launch it with a burst of energy. The sphere of water would then explode into a ferocious, pulsating wave that would blow its target away...literally.

Honestly, Ash wasn't sure whether Hydrus would be able to master Water Pulse easily, but it wouldn't hurt to learn the basics from a pokémon who already knew the move – Ritchie's Slowpoke. He decided that it would be easier for his Psyduck to learn the move properly when he'd evolve into a Golduck.

"Do you think you can do it?" Ash asked his friend once Floyd had blasted a large boulder with Water Pulse. Hydrus thought for a second and then nodded. Ash grinned. "Okay, Hydrus. You've got this."

Ash pushed himself up and backed away as Floyd the Slowpoke groaned something to Hydrus in his native tongue. The Psyduck nodded attentively and Ash left quietly. He had to check on the others.

XxXxX

Ash visited Zeus and Sparky a moment after he'd checked on Saur and Luna, the former learning Magical Leaf pretty well. The Flaaffy and Pikachu were releasing massive bolts of lightning at a tree, although they stopped for a few minutes every once in a while. The usage of so much electricity was tiring them out and their breaks got longer each time as their electrical organs were strained from such a workout. Still, they weren't going to quit so easily, especially Zeus, who got more fired up each time they stopped practicing Thunderbolt.

At this rate his pokémon was going to learn Thunderbolt in a couple of days, if not a week at most. There were only two problems: one, Zeus and Sparky weren't used to letting out so much electricity at one go, which was immensely different from the continuous usage of Thundershocks. The second one was that the two electric-types weren't good at aiming Thunderbolts yet, so after Zeus learnt the move he was going to make him improve his accuracy on the move.

The boy approached the two cautiously. "Hey. Do you guys want to stop for the day?"

Sparky looked like he wanted to say yes, but before he could respond to Ash's question Zeus bleated angrily at his fellow electric-type, who flinched in fright. The Pikachu immediately shook his head furiously and cast Zeus a dirty look.

Ash snorted, but allowed them to continue. He backed away just in time as Ritchie's Pikachu let loose a massive surge of electricity that ripped the air and stopped a few seconds later. Sparky let out a sigh and dropped down to the ground, exhausted.

Ash removed a couple of berries from his berry pouch and tossed one to each pokémon. Sparky let out a content sigh and suddenly roasted the Oran berry with a Thundershock that sent it charred. Zeus simply chucked the berry in his pink mouth and bleated happily.

Ash grinned. "How about you guys work on Agility?"

Sparky's ears twitched at that and he shrugged before chirping something at Zeus. The Flaaffy nodded and pushed himself onto his two feet before waddling a few feet from their previous position.

The Pikachu talked for a moment, then screwed up his eyes in concentration before he blurred away with increased speed. Every passing second, Sparky seemed to be teleporting short distances as his body was coated in a faint, pink outline as he relaxed his muscles. Finally Sparky stopped, and he rushed towards Zeus and Ash with newfound speed.

Ash looked at Zeus. Since it was an inherited move for him, he didn't expect much from the Flaaffy at this point, but he did want to see how good he was with the move. "Okay, Zeus...Your turn."

Zeus looked a bit nervous, but he too closed his eyes as he focused on his inner potential. It took a while for it to kick in, and Zeus took off, albeit much slower than Sparky. A coat of pink energy surrounded his body for a split-second, but it flickered as Zeus lightened and relaxed his body to raise his speed.

In the end, it was clear that he needed to work on it. Ash looked a bit disappointed but shrugged the expression off his face. Zeus would learn it in time.

"Ash!"

He turned around to see Ritchie jogging towards him, his Butterfree trailing behind the auburn-haired boy. There was a slight frown on his face.

"What's up?" Ash asked. He could see that Ritchie was worried.

"Nurse Joy's called us to her office," he replied. "Before you ask, I don't know why. I guess we'll have to find out."

Ash nodded. "Okay."

They recalled their pokémon and ran inside the Pokémon Centre a moment later. As they walked to Joy's office, Ash wondered why he was being called to the pretty nurse's office. Was it because of the way he'd behaved last night? Or was it because...?

Ritchie knocked politely on the wooden door and they heard a muffled "Enter!"

Joy's office seemed nice and quaint. There was a large maple desk behind which she sat on a comfy, revolving chair, and two similar chairs were placed on the other side of the desk. A bunch of yellow pencils were lined neatly next to a grey pencil-sharpener. The place looked like it was owned by someone who had OCD, and that someone was Nurse Joy.

Joy smiled when she saw Ritchie and Ash. "Welcome! I've been wanting to talk to you about something important."

"Uh..." Ritchie looked nervous. "And that is?"

She sighed. "Well, it is primarily about the events that occurred last night. Since the two of you played an important role in revealing the situation to me, I thought that the both of you might be interested to find out what happened—"

"—to Damien?" Ash completed, looking eager.

"Quite," she said tersely.

"So, what about him?" Ritchie asked.

The nurse moistened her lips. "Well, for now Mr Verres is with Vermillion's Officer Jennifer filling out some paperwork. He'll be sent to a rehabilitation centre for a period of twelve months. His pokémon have been confiscated and are currently being released as we speak. We also have suspicions that Mr Verres may have contacts with pokémon traffickers and/or poachers, since he had some _extremely_ rare pokémon on hand...Lapras, Kangaskhan, and Sandile to name a few."

Ash's eyes widened at that. Although he didn't know the last pokémon, he certainly recognised the first two names. Lapras and Kangaskhan were both incredibly endangered species that were constantly regulated by the League. They were ridiculously hard to find in the wild since the League had certified breeders breeding them under captivity so that they could repopulate. Only trainers recognised by the League obtained Lapras and Kangaskhan and even those were few in number. The only Lapras Ash had ever seen belonged to Red, who had received it as a gift from Lorelei after becoming Champion.

"It was a pretty easy discussion to make," Joy continued, "since I am a certified witness and therefore the League wasted no time in whipping up a sentence. Rest assured, Damien will never be touching a pokeball ever again."

Ash grinned in happiness. That was an even better punishment for the arrogant trainer than he could've asked for. He deserved everything that was coming to him, especially since he'd abused Charmander so badly and left it to die.

"In any case, Officer Jenny give you two her thanks for your cooperation," she finished with a smile.

"So that's it?" Ritchie said.

"Not quite," Joy responded. Ash gave her an inquisitive look and she continued. "The second reason I called the two of you regards Charmander. Since he is released by his original, we have three options to do with his future: release him into the wild, send him to a breeding centre or give him to one of you."

Ritchie's eyes bugged out and Ash's heart skipped a beat. "Say what?"

Joy smirked. "After what Charmander has been through, he would do well with trainers like you. I know you two very well, even though we met last night. I'm good at reading people, and I have seen the way you treat your own pokémon. Half a day is enough to judge somebody.

"The only question that remains is this: which one of you will take him? We can't have one pokémon registered under two IDs. You'll have to decide on your own," she said.

Ash's heart was beating faster than ever. The prospect of having Charmander had never crossed his mind. He'd always thought that he would be either kept with Nurse Joy or given to a sponsor like Professor Oak. This felt like the hardest decision in his life.

He would certainly want to give Charmander a new home if Ritchie wasn't standing next to him. The auburn-haired boy had played an equal if not bigger role in saving Charmander last night. He'd spent enough time with Ritchie to know that he cared a lot about his pokémon and treated them like his own family, just like Ash.

Ash swallowed. "I-it's hard to decide, Nurse," he managed after a long moment. "I mean, both Ritchie and I helped save Charmander's life. As much as I would love to take Charmander with me, I have to say that Ritchie has an equal right to take him along."

"It's all up to Ash," Ritchie said. "I don't mind not taking Charmander. If Ash wants, he can certainly give Charmander a new home."

He shook his head. "No, Ritchie," Ash said. "Charmander will do better with you. Plus, you need another addition to your family of four," he added with a grin.

Ritchie smiled at Ash and shrugged. "If it's okay with you..." He turned to face Nurse Joy. "Ma'am, I'd love to have Charmander."

Joy smiled. "It's settled, then. Charmander now belongs to you. Just let me do the paperwork and he'll be registered on your team in no time. Just make sure you take care of him."

Ritchie nodded determinedly. "I will, ma'am."

"Okay. You can leave now."

The two of them bowed their heads and walked out of the room. Once they did, Ritchie heaved a huge sigh and grinned at Ash.

"Thank you so much, Ash!" he exhaled. "After what Damien did to him, I really wanted to have Charmander with me!"

Ash returned the grin with a weak smile. "He'll do well with you, Ritchie."

In truth, he felt a little jealous for allowing Ritchie to take Charmander, because the thought of having a Charizard really excited him, but he knew his companion would take good care of him. Charmander wasn't a tool. He didn't want to own him and be like Damien.

He shrugged. Charmander or no, he was going to become the strongest of them all.

XxXxX

Ash closed his eyes as he breathed in the fresh, salty air around Vermillion City. The city was nice and pleasant, since it wasn't as noisy as Saffron City. Ash could feel the breeze cooling his skin by the second and he smiled as he heard the waves of the ocean slamming into the beach. Hydrus quacked next to him when he realised that he was so close to his element and the Psyduck jumped up and down in excitement.

"Delphi!" he called, looking up to the sky. He waited for a few moments until there was a rush of air around him and saw his Xatu descending a few meters away from him, landing on the ground with a slight fumble. She shrieked in annoyance but regained her somewhat stoic composure a moment later. He'd been making her fly overhead constantly for the past two weeks so that she could get used to flying, and he was happy to say that she was getting better at it. Ash looked at her proudly and said, "That's much better, Delphi. Good job."

She chirped softly and turned away from him. He frowned at her. She'd been turning more and more distant by the days and never looked him straight in the eye. There was something definitely wrong with her and he needed her to spill the beans as fast as he could.

In any case, he recalled her and clipped the ball to his belt. He looked down at his Psyduck and grinned. "Ready to hit the Centre, Hydrus?"

Hydrus bounced excitedly and rushed in the direction of the red and white building in the distance.

Ash cursed under his breath when Hydrus kept getting farther and farther. "Hey!" he shouted. "Wait up!"

XxXxX

Once Ash found Hydrus, he recalled the innocent Psyduck and healed his pokémon at the Pokémon Centre, which was surprisingly swamped with trainers. While the Nurse Joy of Vermillion City healed his pokémon, he took a nice, long shower and changed into his clean pair of clothes, then went to the cafeteria to have a decent lunch before he collected his pokémon from Joy. Once he thanked the kind nurse, he seated himself in the lobby with a bunch of other trainers and began talking about the gym leaders for a while.

"I'm telling ya, Blaine's the strongest!" Sal Rodriguez remarked. "I mean, his Magmortar took down Lorelei's Jynx! Anyone who can take down an Elite Four's pokémon surely has to be strong."

"That's because Blaine himself was once an Elite Four member, dummy," Zinnia Brown retorted with a roll of her eyes. "He gave his position to Lorelei a decade ago."

Sal's eyes widened. "Oh."

"No way is Blaine the strongest gym leader," Ash butted in, sharing his own biased opinion. "Giovanni takes that place for sure."

Many of the assembled trainers murmured in assent.

"Maybe," Frank Kub admitted, "but there's also Lieutenant Surge. Why else do you think this place is filled with trainers? He's thrashed them so badly that they'll never return!"

They kept talking for another hour until Ash excused himself from the conversation and headed for the gym. He felt both nervous and excited as he approached the imposing, neon-yellow building at the edge of the city. He wasn't sure whether he was ready for the upcoming battle, but his pokémon certainly felt ready. Ever since they'd learnt that they were in Vermillion, Saur, Zeus and Luna were itching for the gym battle. He wasn't going to use Hydrus since a good Thunderbolt would take him out and the gym wouldn't be big enough for Delphi to fly in.

He walked into the gym and saw two brutes in white vests and camo pants guarding the entrance to the battlefield. The bald one sneered when he saw Ash, causing the thin scar on his cheek to contort on his face. "Whaddya want, baby?" he taunted.

Ash frowned. "I'm here to join the army," he said sarcastically. "I'm here for a gym battle! Why else will I be here?"

The other guard scowled. "Fair point. But how many badges ya got there, baby?"

"Two," Ash hissed.

The guards glanced at each other for a second and immediately busted out laughing. Ash's frown deepened in puzzlement. "What's wrong?"

"Two badges?" the bald guard choked out. "Punk, Lieutenant Surge doesn't go easy on his challengers. Unless ya wanna get annihilated like the rest of the trainers that came here for a battle, I suggest ya leave, baby. Surge'll kick your arse in a second."

"I'd like to see him try," Ash snarled, his fists balled. "Where is Surge, anyway? Is he scared that he's going to get whooped by me?"

The guards glared at him so furiously that Ash was scared for a minute. Before they could make a move, there was a howl of laughter and a positively ginormous figure pushed the doors open from the other side and stared at Ash with a grin.

Lieutenant Surge was even bigger than he was in pictures. Standing eight feet tall, the decorated war hero was a true giant. He flexed his arms, which ripped with muscles stuffed under a vein-webbed skin. He wore a green cotton vest that stuck to his body, outlining his perfectly toned body and abs. Sunglasses could covered his eyes and his lips were curled in an arrogant smirk.

"You sound pretty tough, kiddo!" Surge boomed. "But words ain't enough to take down a giant like me. You think you got what it takes?"

"That's why I'm here," Ash said with a glare. "Are we going to battle, or are you going to keep talking?"

He felt pretty scared talking back to such a huge guy, but Surge simply snorted at that statement. "You got some spunk, baby! Let's see whether you're as good as your words."

He followed Surge to the battlefield, which was just a plain dirt field. He'd thought that Vermillion's gym would have something related to it's theme, but there wasn't much one could do with a theme like electricity, unless the field electrocuted the battlers every few seconds.

A gym trainer appeared at the midway position and announced the rules, along with a Kadabra who seemed to be present to put up psychic barriers. "The battle for the Thunder Badge will commence! Each side will be able to use only three pokémon and the battle will end when all of either side's pokémon are retired or declared unable to battle. There will be no substitutions and no time limit. Trainers, select your pokémon!"

Surge sat down on a large chair and enlarged a pokeball and tapped the release button, causing a Pikachu to appear on the field. This one seemed smaller than the ones he'd encountered previously, which meant that this one was the weakest of Surge's pokémon.

Ash took out a pokeball of his own and Saur appeared on the field with an aggressive growl. The Ivysaur locked onto the Pikachu, leered at the mouse and growled once again, ready to thrash the living daylights out of it.

"Begin!" the referee declared, slashing his flag down.

Surge didn't miss a beat. "Electric Terrain."

Pikachu shrieked as electricity exploded from its body and engulfed the entire field until the ground was covered in sparks, causing the dirt field took on a golden hue as it was charged with thunder. Ash blinked in sheer shock as he stared at the electrified field, stumped. This move was alien to him. He didn't know if the field was dangerous to actually hurt or paralyse Saur, but he was wary of it.

"Thundershock," Surge ordered calmly, jarring Ash back into focus.

Pikachu grunted, its red cheeks sparking before it released one of the most powerful Thundershocks Ash had ever seen. He couldn't believe such a small creature could unleash so much power. It seemed like Electric Terrain was intensifying electric-type attacks, and that wasn't good.

"Counter with Energy Ball!" Ash yelled quickly.

Saur released an orb of emerald energy that met the powerful Thundershock, generating an explosion mid-air. Surge seemed unperturbed by his initial failure and simply snapped his fingers loudly, causing a second Thundershock to rip through the smoke and slam into Saur's body. The force of the attack was enough to push him back several meters, but the saurian wasn't going down so easily.

"Multi Vine Whip!" Ash said, once the smoke from the explosion cleared out. "Beat it unconscious."

Surge snorted. "Agility."

Six vines exploded from the base of the bud on Saur's back and shot at Pikachu. A few vines managed to smack the rodent hard and away, but Pikachu recovered a moment later and began to blur across the electrified field with astonishing speed, easily evading Saur's vines. The Ivysaur simply snarled at his failure and his technique kept getting wilder and wilder until he roared furiously and opened his maw, firing a brilliant Energy Ball several meters away from Pikachu's current position.

The mouse's eyes widened and it gasped as it ran straight into the Energy Ball, which exploded violently upon impact. Surge frowned a little at that, but the giant of a man regained his composure almost immediately.

"Quick Tail," Surge barked. "Smash it!"

Pikachu shook off the pain and charged at Saur with the added speed of Quick Attack as its tail hardened and flashed metallic. It was moving even faster than normal, but Ash knew it was due to the effects of Agility, although he could notice the rodent panting. He figured that Surge was simply relying on Pikachu's speed to deliver swift attacks and scarper back, since it probably could take hits and didn't have much power either. That must've been the reason why the gym leader called for Electric Terrain. Ash decided that a few good hits would take the Pikachu out of the game, and that was what he was waiting for.

An idea formed in his mind as Pikachu blurred towards Saur. "Saur!" Ash snapped. "Sleep Powder!"

Surge's eyes widened as Saur expelled a condensed cloud of grey dust from its bud. The gym leader shouted frantically at Pikachu to stop, but the yellow mouse simply tripped over its own feet as it tried to halt in its tracks and rolled right into the cloud of spores. Nevertheless, Pikachu barrelled into Saur with its metallic tail once Surge ordered it to continue the Quick Tail, and Ash's Ivysaur cringed in pain as the Iron Tail slammed into his skull.

A split-second later, Pikachu dropped to the ground and closed its eyes, fast asleep.

"Son of a – flippin' hell!" Surge roared, immensely annoyed.

Ash smirked. "Saur, finish it off. Power Whip barrage!"

Power Whip wasn't even half mastered, but it was still a crazily overpowered version of Vine Whip that dealt a considerable amount of damage to the recipient. Ash winced as Saur kept lashing Pikachu with thick, glowing vines until a beam of red energy recalled the fallen mouse into its pokeball.

Surge glared at Ash and his Ivysaur for a moment before exchanging the pokeball in his hand for another one. "That was good, but it ain't like I approve status techniques. Let's see if your pet can last the next round."

The second pokémon was a Voltorb. The pokeball-like creature glared furiously at Saur and whirred mechanically as sparks arched around its spherical body. The Voltorb was a fair bit larger than the rest of its species, which meant that Surge had trainer it well. It wasn't a foe to be underestimated.

Surge immediately began issuing orders. "Screech, then Rollout."

Ash clamped his hands over his ears as Voltorb released a horribly shrill cry that sent the hairs on his hand standing. Saur let loose a furious shriek and shook his head to clear the sound, but while the noise had him distracted, Voltorb rolled right towards Saur and barrelled him with its rotund body.

Saur screamed in pain as the Rollout sent him reeling, but Voltorb simply rolled to its side of the field before the Ivysaur could grab it with his vines. Saur shook his head, the harsh sound still echoing in his mind.

"Saur, focus!" Ash cried. "Razor Leaf!"

"Shred them with Sonicboom!" Surge roared.

A destructive shockwave was launched at Saur as the Ivysaur tensed the fronds atop his back and fired several sharp leaves from them. Ash wasn't surprised when the Sonicboom slashed right through the curved leaves, though the Razor Leaf managed to lessen the damage considerable. Saur was struck cleanly by the attack and screamed in pain, but he refused to go down.

"Spark."

"Take Down!"

Saur charged right at Voltorb, whose body danced with an absurd amount of electricity. The saurian put all his power in his body as he reckless slammed into Voltorb, who shocked the Ivysaur with its Spark attack. Even though Saur was naturally resistant to electric-type attacks, the Electric Terrain had definitely boosted the power of electric moves and had served a lot of damage to Saur.

The grass-type reeled back in the added recoil damage of Take Down, but he managed to dodge another Spark from Voltorb. Saur retaliated with a powerful Vine Whip that smacked the electric-type right into one of the psychic barriers. Voltorb whirred in anger and turned around, glaring at Saur through furious eyes.

"Charge Beam!" Surge shouted.

Voltorb's entire body sparked with electricity as the air around it suddenly charged with ozone. An intense beam of electricity was fired at Saur, who jumped out of the way to avoid the attack, but the electricity managed to graze his right flank and he grimaced in pain. The beam of electricity slammed into the opposite psychic barrier, which shook and flared upon impact. Ash's eyes widened at the sheer power of the attack before something else shocked him even more.

Voltorb glowed with an incandescent white light, releasing pulsing waves of energy from its body. Ash gaped while Surge grinned maniacally as Voltorb's body increased in size, although it remained the same shape. Its body vibrated as it continued to glow brighter and brighter until ash covered his eyes with his arms.

The evolutionary light burst away violently, revealing the electric-type's new form. The top half of the creature was now white and the lower half was red. The pokémon had beady, black eyes and a wild grin that matched its trainer's. Ash couldn't believe his eyes. Voltorb had evolved into Electrode!

His shock was quickly replaced by fear and anxiety. This completely turned the tables. Ash knew he had a change previously, but this was ridiculous. Now, he was _very_ unsure and if Electrode wasn't taken down fast, he would most likely lose.

"Ha!" Surge barked. "You think you can beat me now, baby?! This battle is completely in my favour! You have no chance of beating me!"

Ash clenched his fists and ignored Surge, not wanting the gym leader to get to him. If he was going to lose, he want going to do that on Surge's terms. He would go down fighting.

Surge shrugged by his opponent's lack of response. "Your funeral, kiddo. More like your pokémon's funeral!" He laughed at his own joke. "Electrode, Charge Beam! Fry that little shit!"

Ash gritted his teeth. "Dodge! Follow up with Multi Vine Whip!"

Saur managed to evade the Charge Beam, but Ash noticed that his friend was panting heavily. Saur needed to land all hits if he needed to win this fight, but his endurance was wasting.

Nevertheless, Saur lashed out with multiple vines and smacked Electrode around like a pinball. Electrode whirred in annoyance and pain and grunted at its trainer, who gave it a command to destroy every vine attacking it.

"Sonicboom!"

Electrode whirred in its spot and unleashed a destructive shockwave that sliced with incredible speed. The severed vines fell to the ground and wriggled on the field, though they ceased to move shortly. However, the blade of energy kept travelling and struck a sound hit into Saur's right flank.

Ash knew Saur was on his last legs, so he needed something to give the rest of his pokémon a fighting chance. "Leech Seed!" he ordered. "Don't stop until you score a hit!"

Saur nodded shakily, concentrating until a continuous barrage of parasitic seeds started shooting out of the protrusion slot of his bud. Electrode kept rolling out of the way, occasionally stopping to charge Thunderbolts but stopped midway when the green, glowing seeds came too close for its comfort. Saur, however, didn't let his failure to get to him and determinedly kept firing the parasitic seeds until one of them finally hit Electrode.

The pellet snapped open and Electrode was wrapped in a net of vines which proceeded to glow the same colour as the seeds and began sapping energy from its host. Electrode's grin turned into a scowl and a grimace as the fluorescent, parasitic web continued to absorb it's energy.

"End it," Surge growled. "Gyro Ball!"

Before Electrode could even prepare the move, Ash recalled Saur. He knew when his pokémon was defeated and held his hand up. "I retire Saur from the match!"

Surge grinned. "Good choice, kid. Maybe you're not as stupid as the rest of the bastards I've faced."

Ash ignored the crude use of language by the gym leader and smiled fondly at Saur's pokeball. "You did great, buddy," Ash said. "I'm so proud of you."

He switched the scratched pokeball with another and tapped the release button. When the white light faded, Zeus blinked as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings and the Flaaffy bleated in content, his eyes narrowed at the vine-encased Electrode.

"Rollout!" Surge barked. "Then Gyro Ball, followed by Charge Beam!"

"Iron Tail!" Ash called. "Confuse Ray."

Electrode began to roll across the field towards Zeus, who promptly smacked the rotund pokémon away with an iron-hard tail. Electrode whirred in pain and crashed harshly into the ground. Zeus darted at it, not missing a beat as he emitted a beam of alien energy via the orb on his tail, enveloping his spherical opponent and sending him into a temporary berserk state.

Zeus' Confuse Ray wasn't perfect, but it was enough to addle Electrode's mind. Its eyes twitched, then the electric-type began firing numerous blasts of electricity that ripped through the air and slammed into the psychic barriers, which flared upon the intensity of the Charge Beam. It didn't hurt much since Zeus' bare and slick parts of his hide were shielded against electricity, so the Flaaffy could easily take down Electrode and bring Surge's third pokémon.

"Iron Tail!" Ash commanded. "Knock it out."

Zeus nodded, his tail flashing silver as he spun head over heels rapidly, coming down towards the incapacitated Electrode. Electrode banged itself against the ground I confusion just as the Iron Tail slammed into the top half of its body and Ash watched the rotund pokémon's eyes widen in surprised pain before it was knocked out.

Surge scowled and recalled Electrode just as the field lost its golden hue and turned into its original state. Electric Terrain had shut down and Ash now awaited Surge's third pokémon.

This time it was a great-ball that was tossed in the air, releasing a massive Raichu on the ground. The orange mouse curled up its paws and flicked its powerful tail, which had an end in the shape of a jagged lightning bolt.

"Zeus, Iron Tail!"

"Get 'em," Surge snarled. "Quick Slam!"

Raichu sniggered and darted at Zeus, leaving a trail of white energy behind it. The huge mouse put all the power in its body to deliver a fierce Slam, strengthened by the increase in speed due to Quick Attack. Zeus swung his tail at Raichu's skull, but suddenly the rodent's tail intercepted Zeus' and pinned him to the ground. The Flaaffy gasped in pain as Raichu's greater weight crushed his body against the ground, momentarily knocking the wind out of him. Surge gave his next order.

"Mega Punch."

Zeus had just gotten up when a well aimed punch from Raichu punted him several meters away from the mouse. Ash winced as the Flaaffy crashed into the ground with enough force to form a small crater. Zeus bleated in irritation and pushed himself off, glaring at Raichu.

Raichu sniggered and flicked its tail, awaiting Surge's next command. The gym leader had a lazy smirk formed on his face and snapped his fingers. "Brick Break!"

Raichu charged at Zeus, its left paw glowing a bright orange. Ash waited until the beast of a mouse was a few seconds away from beating its opponent silly, then snapped. "Duck!"

Zeus immediately dropped down like a sack of rocks. Raichu completely overshot him, soaring gracefully into the air, and Zeus did something interesting. He tripped Raichu mid-air so that it crashed face-first into the ground, and then he slammed an Iron Tail into the back of its skull.

Raichu screamed in pain from the Iron Tail and pushed itself up, glaring at Zeus with pure hate. It growled menacingly and darted at Zeus with the help of Quick Attack with the intent to hurt. "Agility!" Ash said. Evade it."

Agility hadn't been mastered, but, with a lot of practice over the past few Zeus had gotten a hang on it. The Flaaffy blurred across the field with a considerable increase in speed, dodging Raichu's first attack, but the large mouse was fast as well. It had no trouble keeping up with Zeus and ran alongside him, twisting its face into taunting expressions and snickering in mirth.

That was until Zeus smacked it in the face with an Iron Tail and stopped Raichu in its tracks. Surge's pokémon doubled over in pain and crashed into the ground, rolling to a standstill a few seconds later.

Ash grabbed his chance like Jack grabbed his Twinkies. "Take Down!"

Raichu pushed itself up only to be recklessly slammed into by Zeus. The Flaaffy barrelled straight into the other electric-type, putting all his weight into the powerful tackle. Raichu felt the wind knocked out of it, but recovered quickly and smacked Zeus away with its tail.

Zeus suffered quite a bit of damage, but in his dazed state he never expected a ferocious Mega Punch to hurl him across the room. Zeus skidded across the field harshly, but pulled himself to his feet. He was still groggy from the impact and glared at Raichu, who was snickering, albeit he was equally tired. From the way Zeus was breathing, Ash knew he could take only one more hit before he was knocked out.

Surge smirked. "Get this done with. Volt Tackle!"

"Get ready," Ash told Zeus. "When it's close, bash it with Iron Tail!"

Zeus staggered, but he nodded at his trainer's command, bracing himself as Raichu cloaked itself in a concentrated sheen of electricity. Raichu zigzagged across the field, then suddenly changed direction and darted right at Zeus with incredible speed. The Iron Tail and Volt Tackle collided, and a flash of light burst outwards from the source, blinding Ash and he shielded his eyes as an explosion rang out.

When the brightness faded, he found Zeus lying on the ground, unconscious. Ash quickly recalled Zeus with a sigh. Raichu was a monster. It had completely shrugged off attacks and retaliated with blistering speed and ferocious hits in no time flat. This was getting ridiculous. Not to mention that Electrode had suddenly evolved and changed the tide of the battle.

In spite of himself, he chuckled as he remembered his gym battle against Brock. So that was how the hormonal teen must've felt when Saur evolved...

Ash grabbed Luna's pokeball and tapped the release, unleashing the Clefairy on the battlefield. Luna hummed serenely but narrowed her eyes when she noticed Raichu, her calm demeanour turning serious.

Surge raised his eyebrow at Luna, but didn't say anything about her. "Wrap this up, Raichu. Iron Tail!"

Ash cursed under his breath. Fairy-types were highly vulnerable to steel-type moves, so he had to play this one carefully. He knew that if Surge's powerful Raichu scored even a few Iron Tails, his Clefairy would go down and he'd lose the match.

Not that he had much of a chance to begin with...

"Disarming Voice!" he cried out as he saw Raichu covering the distance.

Luna let loose a charming cry and Ash couldn't help but feel his heart melt at the sound. The sound she emitted was rather cute to him and he wondered how it would hurt any pokémon, but a second later Raichu stopped in its tracks and grimaced as the vocal tone Luna emitted ripped through its mind and emotionally hurt it. Surge frowned as Raichu fell to the ground, but it picked itself up and charged at Luna with Iron Tail once again.

Luna attempted to dodge, but Raichu's tail was long enough to smack her hard across the face. Luna squealed in pain as she was thwacked to the side, where she skidded harshly on the ground. Raichu spun in mid-air, slashing its tail like a blade at Luna, who rolled to her left in time and avoided the Iron Tail by a second.

"Sing!" Ash said.

Luna murmured a sleep-inducing song at Raichu, but the huge mouse darted out of the way, albeit missing by an inch. Ash noticed that Raichu was moving much slower than usual, probably because it had taken so many hits from Zeus and the infamous recoils damage due to Volt Tackle. A few powerful hits would be enough to take it down, Ash was sure.

"Cosmic Power!" Ash yelled.

"Body Slam!" Surge cried quickly. "Don't let 'em get away with that."

Luna closed her eyes, enveloping herself in a thin layer of mystic energy. She stood her ground, concentrating to raise her defences as Raichu leapt at her with all its might, determined to crush her under its weight and intercept the b—

"Minimize, keep that Cosmic Power going!" Ash snapped suddenly.

Just as Raichu was about to slam into Luna, the Clefairy shrunk down to a tenth of her normal size, still glowing on account of Cosmic Power's effects. Raichu completely overshot its target and hit the ground headfirst and bouncing a foot away. Luna grew back into her normal size in a split-second second and ruthlessly clobbered Raichu with her tiny fist in a Pound attack until Raichu angrily smacked her away with its tail. Raichu staggered to its feet just as Luna pushed herself up, obviously hurt but still able to fight.

"Super Slam!" Surge bellowed, slamming his fist against his thigh. "Get it done with!"

"Minimize," Ash ordered calmly, a plan forming in his mind. "Keep going with Cosmic Power along the way."

And for the next fifteen minutes went by with Luna minimising her way out of Raichu's Super Speed and building up her defences with Cosmic Power, although she was having trouble avoiding the huge mouse. Ash didn't know how Raichu had gotten so fast – it almost looked like it was using Extreme Speed – but he suspected that it was using a combination of Quick Attack, Agility and Slam. He made a mental note to try that one out with one of his friends someday.

Ash cringed as Raichu slammed into Luna just as she grew back into her original size, sending her flying across the field, where she crashed into the ground. She rose, groaning and wobbling slightly. She almost fell to the ground, but held herself up with her short arms.

"Come on, Raichu," Surge growled. "Volt Tackle!"

Raichu grunted and winced before it was cocooned in electricity and darted at Luna. The Clefairy stared at Ash from across the field, frantically waiting for an order as panic flashed in her eyes. Ash waited, waited... _Just_ one _more second..._

"Stored Power!" he bellowed, grinning.

Surge ripped away the sunglasses from his face, showing eyes that threatened to fall out of their sockets. He opened his mouth, his voice a tremendous roar as he screamed, " _MOTHERFU—!_ "

Just as Raichu crashed into its opponent, Luna let loose an iridescent efflux of unrestricted raw power. The surge, both horizontal and circumferential, was exuded from her glowing body like a polychromatic nuclear explosion. The constant use of Cosmic Power and Minimize significantly boosted the strength of Stored Power, which slammed ferociously into Raichu's huge body.

There was a piercing shriek, a flash of blinding light from the collision of Volt Tackle and Stored Power, and the sound of psychic barriers shuddering under the raw power exuded by the two pokémon. Ash covered his eyes as he felt a rush of wind dousing him and pushing him a foot away. He didn't dare open his eyes in fear of turning blind.

When the light faded and he opened his eyes, he saw the smoking form of Raichu lying unconscious on the ground, while Luna was barely struggling to stay standing. He stared at the scene for a few moments before realisation crashed into him like a tsunami. He'd won!

Surge's face was absolutely priceless. "What the – you gotta be _kidding_ me!"

Ash immediately recalled Luna with his pokeball, then pressed the sphere to his lips. "Take a rest, Luna," he muttered, grinning. "You were absolutely _magnificent_."

Ash heard the sound of footsteps and turned to see Surge heading towards him. He backed away, expecting a fierce scowl on the war hero's face, and flinched as Surge raised his hand—

And clapped his on the shoulder, grinning.

"That was one hell of a battle, kid!" Ash blinked at Surge's cheery voice. "Damn, I ain't had that much fun in weeks!"

Ash smiled back nervously. "Th-thanks."

Surge chuckled and shoved a hand into his pocket, bringing out a badge a second later. "You earned this," he said. "The Thunder Badge. With this, you get closer to your goal of competing in the Indigo Conference, yadda, yadda, yadda." Surge winked. "To tell ya the truth, you're one of the first ten people to actually win this little beauty."

Ash held the badge in awe. He was still ecstatic over his win and couldn't believe that he'd actually won against Lieutenant Surge! He made a note to show his friends the badge before stowing it away in his badge case for safekeeping.

"And here's the complimentary TM," Surge added, handing over a fluorescent yellow disc. "It's Charge Beam, an electric attack which never misses! Use it well, since it's a one-time use only."

Ash grinned and stowed the disc into his TM Case quickly before looking back up at Surge.

"Anyway, why don't ya and I get to the Centre?" Surge suggested. "You're pokémon are pretty beat up and mine are too."

Ash nodded. "Sounds good to me."

XxXxX

"Your pokémon will be healed in no time, Lieutenant Jefferson," Nurse Joy said with a smile. "In the meantime, you and Mr Ketchum can wait at the Centre's cafeteria until your pokémon recover."

"Thanks, Missy," Surge grunted with a dip of his head. Then he and Ash went into the cafeteria to grab some lunch.

Ash and Surge ordered a hearty lunch, which was spread over their table like a buffet. If there was something in common between Ash and Surge, it was the quickness at which they wolfed down their grub.

Surge bellowed a rude burp when he shoved down an entire cheeseburger down his oesophagus, grinning at Ash as he wiped off the crumbs around his mouth with the back of his hand. "Ahh...That hits the spot."

Ash managed not to make a disgusted face at Surge's table manners, but decided quickly that he wasn't one to talk since his own manners weren't that great either. "Cheeseburgers," he muttered, ripping a chunk off his own burger. "The food of gods."

Surge snorted. "True that."

Once Ash was done with his food, he sipped some of his shake and glanced at the gym leader. "Hey, Surge," Ash said, "why did the nurse call you 'Jefferson'? I'm just curious, that's all," he added hastily, when Surge scowled.

The giant of a man shifted uncomfortably. "Surge isn't my real name," he muttered, then snorted. "Of course it ain't. Actually, my official name is Owen Jefferson, the one which my old man gave me. Ya ever heard of Greg Jefferson?"

Ash frowned in concentration. "Wasn't he the gym leader before you?"

Surge nodded. "Yep. He was considered one of the strongest leaders in all of Kanto. He actually kicked a lot of ass, y'know. He trained flying-types, which is the reason I'm an electric-type trainer now. I still have a few flying-types from when I was the gym trainer in his gym," Surge finished with a grin.

Ash's eyes widened at that information. "You and flying-types?"

"Uh-huh. Let's see..." Surge started counting on his fingers. "Fearow, Noctowl, Emolga, then Swellow – nah, he got killed in the Civil War..." He shrugged. "Yep, I still have those three, apart my own dad's, y'know. Anyway, that's enough about me. What about you? You sound a bit familiar, though..."

Ash smirked. "Ever heard of Red Ketchum?"

Surge's eyes bugged out of his head. "No fuckin' way!"

Ash nodded, ignoring the crude use of language by the gym leader.

"Huh." He looked at Ash with entirely new interest. "I'll be frank with ya – you've got a lot of potential, Ketchum. Ivysaur's okay; with his spore moves and Power Whip he'll become a monster, although I dunno much about 'em. I didn't expect a Clefairy to pack such a big punch—" Ash smirked at that, "—and you're Flaaffy seemed fine too. You know, once you're done collecting badges and whooping the rest of the leaders, come back here. I might teach that Flaaffy a few of my techniques, especially Megavolt."

Ash grinned, nodding. He would love to have an expert like Surge to help Zeus live up to his name. Megavolt in particular sounded like an awesome technique for his Flaaffy to learn. He couldn't wait for the day he'd come back to Vermillion City.

"What else ya got aside from those three?" Surge probed.

"A Psyduck and Xatu."

"I dunno much about them, either, but I'll be able to give you a few pointers to help you're Flaaffy," Surge uttered. "I know he's inherited Agility, so make him run back a forth a few hundred metres for half an hour. That'll help him learn that in no time. Aside from that, teach him Charge Beam and a combo of Agility and Electro Ball. The latter is a really good one in battle."

Ash nodded. "Thanks a lot, Lieutenant. I'll keep that in mind."

Surge grinned. "No problem, kiddo. Don't forget that promise of coming back here! If you want some help, I'll need a fee of an amazing battle.

"So, what's your next move, Ketchum?" Surge asked suddenly. "Which place are ya hitting next?"

Ash took his time draining his shake. "Well, I've got a ticket to go aboard the St Anne," he informed, "so my next stop will be Cinnabar Island. Not to mention my team will be getting a whole lot of experience aboard the ship."

"Looks like Fate's keeping up together for a while, eh?" Ash looked confused at the statement, so the gym leader elaborated. "I'll be on the St Anne for a while, too. I've gotta commentate for the tournament that's being held, and I need a comfy bed for my arse, too. So don't be surprised if you see my big dong over that friggin' cruise liner, Ketchum!"

Ash could've done without that visual, but he still smiled at Surge. They shook hands with matching grins just as Nurse Joy called their names via the speakers overhead.

XxXxX

Ash tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the person in front of him to end her call. He'd been waiting forever to tell his mom the good news of his latest victory. His pokémon had been pretty ecstatic when he showed them the badge and Luna had been giggling giddily. He couldn't wait to see his mother's face split into a wide grin when he would show her the badge.

"—breaking u-up with y-you," he heard the girl sob in front of him. "If you're not r-ready to come over here, then we're d-done. Bye."

The boy at the other end sighed exasperatedly. "But babe—"

Too late, the call had already been cut. The girl got up from her seat and whipped around, eyes puffy due to constant crying, and she darted out of the Centre.

Ash sat down on the comfy chair and quickly dialled his mom's number while he simultaneously searched for his badge case. He fiddled around with the case until he final pulled out the golden badge out and held it between his fingers.

 _Click_.

"Hi, Ashy!" Delia greeted happily when she saw her son from the videophone. "How are – oh, wow!"

Ash's grin, if possible, turned wider. "Yeah! I got the Thunder Badge!"

"Ash, I'm so proud of you," she said fondly. "I've heard that the lieutenant is pretty fierce in gym challenges these days."

"Yup," he said, popping the 'p'. "But Luna managed to defeat Raichu, even though it ended in a draw...But you obviously can't forget Saur and Zeus. They helped a lot!"

"Mhmm." Delia sighed in content. "So, what are you going to do next?" she asked. "Will you be heading to Celadon and face Erika?"

Ash blinked in surprise. "Uh, actually, I forgot to tell you something..." He grinned nervously. "Bill Goodshow gave me a ticket to the St Anne. It's leaving for Cinnabar in four days, so..." He gave her the most innocent look he could muster. "Can I go? Please? I mean, Gary's going too! It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience!"

Delia seemed to be struggling with something. "Ash, I – you – okay, fine," she finally relented. "But just don't get lost, or something! And always remember to change your un—"

"I got it!" He groaned in exasperation, and Delia giggled. "Anyway, I gotta go. Love you! Tell Red I said hi!"

"Bye sweetie!" his mom said quickly. "Take care, stay safe, and I love you too!"

Ash smiled one last time before he disconnected the call and got up from his seat, allowing the next person to make use of the videophone. It was getting pretty late, so he decided to head straight for his room, since he wasn't hungry anyway after eating so much with Surge. He made sure his friends ate, however and, waited in the cafeteria for half an hour and letting his friends eat before he walked to his room.

As he lay awake in his bed, Hydrus and Luna next to him on the bed, he took out his pokégear and noted down some plans for his team. He still had four days left before he set sail for Cinnabar Island, and even then he and his friends could train aboard the ship.

Ash wanted to teach Saur Double Edge and Synthesis. Double Edge was simply a more powerful version of Take Down, and similar to a normal-type version of Volt Tackle and Flare Blitz. Although the recoil damage was notorious, with constant practice Saur would be able to easily negate the effects of recoil when he would be in in Venusaur stage. Not to mention that he would pack and even more powerful punch in that form.

Synthesis was a move that used sunlight to heal the user's wounds in a matter of minutes. In the presence of sunlight Saur would not only be able to move faster (thanks to Chlorophyll) but also heal himself via Synthesis at a much, much faster pace. He also made a note to buy the Sunny Day TM at the earliest.

Zeus had to keep working with Agility like Surge had said and Thunderbolt. The latter was still not perfect and the aim was horrible. Luna needed to master Cosmic Power, which was still not perfect. The way she'd used it in the battle against Raichu had only slightly boosted her defence Minimize was the main reason her Stored Power was so powerful.

He was planning on trying to teach Delphi Air Slash and Psychic. So far she knew no psychic-type moves, so Psychic would be a leg up for her. He also wanted her to help Zeus learn Confuse Ray, a technique which she already knew.

The one who needed to train the hardest, however, was Hydrus. The little Psyduck was far behind the rest of the team and he really needed to catch up with them, lest he be left behind. He had no clue when Hydrus would evolve, but when he would the Psyduck would be on equal footing with the rest of his team. Plus, the most of Hydrus' powerful moves could only be accessible when he'd be in his psychic state – and till now Ash had only seen his friend go into that state a few times. He figured that Hydrus would be able to use those moves better when he'd become a Golduck.

Still, Hydrus needed to get stronger if he wanted to evolve, and right now he was a minnow. He needed to work on Water Pulse, which was only half complete. Ash even had plans for giving him the Scald TM once he evolved.

Ash yawned and set the alarm for eleven AM on his pokégear. After everything that happened today, they all deserved a rest.

XxXxX

Ash breathed in the salty air as he stood on the docks, a massive crowd around him. Taking off his cap, he ran his hand through the mass of black hair on his head, a grin slowly spreading across his face.

Next to him, Hydrus jumped up and down in excitement as a loud horn was blown in the distance. The ticket Bill had given him was clenched tightly in his fist as a humongous ship stopped into the port.

"Welcome!" a loud voice boomed from the cruise liner. "The St Anne is here at last!"

XxXxX

 **A/N: And that's it! The next chapter marks the beginning of the St Anne Arc, which will have training, interactions with Surge, Gary, rich folks, etc. Oh, and there will be the tournament I've been harping on about since last chapter! It's basically going to be a six round thing, so expect a lot of battles and a whole lot of ass-whooping in the next couple of chapters.**

 **Delphi evolves! Ash receives his first fully-evolved pokémon in the form of a Xatu, which is an incredibly underrated pokémon in fics – but aren't 90% pokémon underrated on ? – and I absolutely loved including this beauty. Ash also battles a prick (Lionel, I'm looking at you) and meets Ritchie _and_ Charmander! Sorry to the folks who wanted Ash to receive his very own fire lizard, but I've got plans for another fire-type he'll be receiving. The only hint I'm giving is that he's got one in Canon.**

 **Surge...Ah, I honestly love this giant – writing him was the best part of the chapter since this guy is basically a badass, blunt son of a gun who curses like a Gengar. Plus, I'm a guy who curses at least a gazillion times a day, so Surge was really f* easy for me to write, ya sons of b*! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!**

 ** _Ahem_.**

 **Anyway, onto the review responses for chapter four:**

 **Selet: I love the story so far. Team Rocket is actually competent, Nurse Joy's aren't pushovers, gym leaders have actually earned their position, besides Misty's sisters that is. Can't wait to read more of this story.**

 _-Thank you for the kind words._

 **Fractal (Guest): First, congrats on rewriting the Nomad. I liked the original and it's good to see this up. The structure and dialogue here seems to flow better than before , and that's a great improvement.**

 **However, I'd like to point out a concern i have about the new changes. Why do the Pokemon know moves way ahead of the curve? Aqua Tail is generally learned by a level 35 Blastoise, for example, and it might be better to start it off with Water Gun or Aqua Jet to make it more realistic and allow the powerful moves to grow over time. Most Pokemon wikis mention the level when a Pokemon learns a move , so that might help you.**

 _-Thanks! As for pokémon learning moves ahead of their curve, it isn't really a problem unless the move requires the user to be of a high level – for example, a young Squirtle might be able to learn Aqua Tail with little difficulty, but learning Hydro Pump is an entirely different matter. Also, let's not forget when the anime decided to go full retard and allow Trip's newbie Snivy defeat a Battle Frontier level Pikachu with a Leaf Storm (which, coincidentally, can be learnt only by a level 43 Snivy as per Sun/Moon)._

 **Blooper (Guest): Loving your story! It's getting pretty entertaining and it's going to be cool to see how Ash evolves as a trainer and how the St Anne plays out.**

 _-Thanks a lot, and I can't wait for the St Anne Arc to be uploaded either :)_

 **Blue is the Sea: I've been keeping my eye on this for a little bit now and am excited to see it's progress. Most stories like this die within the first 20,000 words so I'm pleasantly surprised to see it still chugging along. It's still fairly early in Ash's journey so you haven't got a lot of wiggle room to put your own spin on things but I'd say your doing a pretty good job with what you have shown. Your battle scenes are entertaining and I don't feel the need to skim through them like most fics and your diction is pleasant to read. Team choices seem fairly balanced as well, Bulbasaur line being one of my favorites doesn't hurt my appreciation of the team either. Don't be afraid to skip giving him certain Pokemon if you don't want to. This is already AU, make it so if Ash's anime charmander does exist he is living it up on an exotic volcano island.**

 **Having Ash travel with two others was risky- it can stunt the MCs growth and makes it difficult to give everyone enough screen time without overdoing it. But Jack and Natalie showed the human and more emotional side of your Ash making it easier to connect with him. His relationship with Gary is interesting as well and I bet healthier for everyone in the long run. I love Traveler, but I do not like how it inspired everyone to start making a 'strong' Ash package include anti-social tendencies with other human characters to an extreme degree. It gets really annoying to constantly see the inner thoughts of Ash be about how much he hates socializing with people and wasting his time. Your Ash being willing to stop and chat and actually be friendly with people is refreshing.**

 **Thanks for the chapter, and I look forward to your next update!**

 _-Well, all I can say is that I have no intention of discontinuing this fic! I've been waiting for your review ever since I noticed that Trainer was added to your community – which has already given me access to a great number of fics on the site! As for Charmander, I was a bit nervous about not giving it to him, but the want for making this fic as original as possible stopped me from it. The reason I made Ash travel with Jack and Natalie was because I wanted to develop their characters a bit, since people already know what Gary is like. Traveller turned Ash into Red: he's very reserved and doesn't talk much, which is a fair bit OOC since Ash is pretty friendly in general. Thank you for the review in any case, and I hope you enjoy Trainer for months to come._

 **Spookdoder: Okay, I have a question about allowing Ash and Gary to have as many Pokemon as they want: Why? What is the basis for this, they have never handled anything bigger than a Wartortle/Ivysaur. They are rookies with 1/2 badges and without any experience. Why are they allowed more than 6 pokemon and all the other people in Kanto are not.**

 **Positive points are found as well though and deserve to get some mention. This story is much better than The Nomad, more details, better story, no Porygon. I do have some negative points though, you said you got a lot of inspiration from Challenger, which is fine, I think a lot of stories do. But you could have picked another water Pokemon than Poliwag though. Gone with something completely different than Challenger did. The biggest thing I don't like though is the TM case given to him by Red. If it was just the case I would have been fine with it, but it's filled with TM's to make his journey easier.**

 **Anyway, keep doing what you're doing, I personally would have done some things different, but the story is definitely in my top 10 of Pokemon fanfictions if you don't start giving Ash super OP legendary or psuedo legendary pokemon and stay away from canon pokes as much as possible.**

 _-The reason I lifted Ash's carry limit was so that he could train and bond with all his pokémon better than if he had to constantly switch them. Ash isn't going to have a small team, but he's going to capture quite some pokémon in the long run. Plus I don't really like writing about pokémon switches and stuff like that._

 _As for the Poliwag issue, I wholeheartedly agree with you. It feels like I'm trying to leech off of Darkfire1220's choice, so I decided to replace Poliwag with Psyduck, which is a fairly good choice. It doesn't honestly cause my plans to differ so I didn't have a problem changing that._

 **That's it for now, guys! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and don't forget to review.**


	6. Ship Happens, Pt I

_Chapter Six: Ship Happens, Part I_

Ash sighed in relief when he'd finally got to the front of the unbelievably long line. There were a lot of people who'd been wanting to get onto the ship, and he was very happy that he'd woken up three hours earlier than usual today.

"Ticket, please," a muscular, well-groomed sailor told him in a pleasant tone. From so near close Ash could finally see the ship in all of its glory. It was – there was no other word for it – _huge_. The St Anne positively dwarfed several other ships at the port. The vessel's eight decks reached as high as a seventeen-floor tower block and from stern to bow they were the length of sixty buses. The ships steel hulls were six inches thick and had the potential to hold 3,500 guests, along with their pokémon and the 900 crewmen that would be present on the ship to make the guests' stay the pinnacle of luxury.

Ash unclenched his fist and handed over the rumpled strip of paper to the crewman, who examined it with his hazel eyes before giving it back to Ash with a thin smile. "You're in first class, room number 012. Enjoy your stay!"

Ash nodded a thank you and almost jumped in excitement as he walked past the sailor and into the ship.

The degree of luxury was overwhelming at first. The floor was lined with smooth, red carpets that seemed to go on forever. There were artistic paintings hung up on the walls and soft, melodious music filled his ears. The people on board were almost all wealthy citizens, giving him odd looks, although Ash noticed one or two poorer families huddling together and examining the inside of the ship in awe.

He couldn't believe he was really there. He came from a relatively middle-class family. His idea of a splurge was eating out at his mom's restaurant and going out for a movie with the Oaks. A seven-star cruise liner? Forget it.

He entered his room and caught his breath. It was a suite with two separate bedrooms, each with their own massive king-sized beds and a bar stocked with candy, soda and crisps. A hotline to room service, fluffy towels and pillows, a hot tub, a big screen television…The list was never-ending.

Ash hurled his backpack on the bed as he leapt onto it. It felt like he was sinking into the extremely soft mattress and sheets…

"This is sweet," he muttered giddily. "Absolutely sweet."

After swimming in the bed for several minutes, Ash lazily released his entire team. There were flashes of light as his friends materialized and inspected their surroundings. Saur gaped in awe and looked at Ash for an explanation; Zeus looked equally confused. Delphi seemed mildly surprised and rotated about her spot, while Hydrus immediately quacked and leapt into the hot tub, causing a large splash that splattered harmlessly against the glass doors. Luna waddled next to Ash and hugged his leg, giving him such a warm smile that he wondered whether his heart would ever turn solid again.

"Hey, guys!" he exclaimed excitedly. "We're on the St Anne now. It's a five day trip to Cinnabar, where we'll have out next gym challenge. Plus, there's going to be a tournament on board with a bunch of awesome prizes for the winner! But otherwise we'll be having a lot of fun aboard this cruise liner!"

At that, there were excited sounds from everyone – that is, everyone except for Hydrus and Delphi, the former who was currently asleep in the hot tub and the latter who rarely made a sound these days. Ash simply ignored Delphi's unenthusiastic response and smiled at the rest of his friends.

"Okay!" He clapped his hands excitedly. "Why don't we check out this place first? The ship's huge and we can waste a whole lot of time exploring it. What do you say?"

There was a chorus of sounds and Ash grinned further. "Come on, guys! Let's – Delphi, do you want to stay here?"

Delphi was the only one who hadn't moved from her spot and she nodded curtly at Ash, who shrugged. "Okay. Just make sure Hydrus doesn't wander off, okay? I don't want him to get lost or something."

The Xatu chirped softly and began staring at Hydrus, who was breathing heavily as the warm water from the tub flowed over him. Ash chuckled at the supremely euphoric expression on the duck's face, then swung the door open and left the room, the rest of his friends trailing behind it.

XxXxX

Ash quickly grabbed a pamphlet before he actually started exploring the enormous ship with his friends. There were so many places to hit that he didn't even know where to go first.

The St Anne seemed to be like a pokeball – it seemed large enough on the outside, but there was so much more on the inside of the cruise liner. There were various branches of restaurants from all over the world – _Café Soliel_ , _Sapphire Rainforest_ , to name a few – and the ship's own cafeterias were absolutely massive. There was even a much bigger, much more luxurious dining hall for dinner. Arcades, casinos, Pokémon Centres, a floor solely for training…Ash was utterly surprised by the sheer number of different locations aboard the ship.

Once Ash was done checking out half the place (which took two-and-a-half hours) he had his fair share of fun. He bungee-jumped five or six times, did the waterslide, and played the virtual-reality pokémon RPG and sharpshooter. He took Saur, Zeus and Luna to a juice shop, then went to the shooting range, where people and pokémon could play together. Saur completely curb-stomped everyone else by hitting all his targets with Leech Seeds.

Ash was just about to kill another zombie on the VR sharpshooter when he felt a sharp tap on the back of his head that made him miss his target by a mile. He ripped off the VR camera and whipped around to give his (for lack of a better word) assailant, when he recognized the spiky, brown hair and the cocky smirk on the face.

"Gary!" Ash said, all thoughts of reprimanding him gone from his mind.

Gary's smirk, if possible, widened. "Whadup, Ashy-boy?" he said. "I was wondering whether you'd gotten lost on this ship."

Ash snorted. "At least I didn't get lost in my own house…"

"I was six, okay!" The spiky-haired boy pouted, albeit playfully. "Anyway, this place is pretty neat, isn't it? I can understand why Gramps didn't want to get over here. The luxury is pretty overbearing."

Ash hummed in agreement. "I know. I just can't believe we're actually on this boat."

"What's your room number?" Gary asked suddenly.

"First class, 012."

"That means we're only a few rooms away from each other," Gary said, grinning. "Mine's first class 002. Three separate bedrooms with king-sized beds! Can you believe this place?!"

Ash snorted. "It's too good to be true."

Ash heard his VR camera emit the sound 'Game Over' a few seconds later and he kept the plastic gun and the headset away. He looked around the place – which was brimming with kids – and glanced at Gary. "Why don't we get out of here? There's too many people around."

His rival nodded. "Sounds good to me. Let's get to your room, but first I wanna get my pokémon. Then we can compare teams and see who's better."

Ash snorted. Competitive as always.

XxXxX

Half an hour later the two boys were assembled in Ash's suite. Gary had smirked when he saw Ash's Psyduck lazing around in the hot tub, but turned wary under Delphi's sharp stare. He simply whistled appreciatively at the Xatu and turned to Ash a second later.

"So, Ashy-boy? Show me the rest of your team!"

Ash nodded and tapped the release on the other three pokeballs. He'd kept them in while he had been playing the sharpshooter game because he didn't want them wandering off, but now that they were safe in his room they could relax as much as they wanted. It was a vacation, after all.

Gary didn't say anything when Saur appeared, but raised an eyebrow at Zeus' ferocious bleat and grinned in glee when Luna smiled tentatively at him. The Clefairy immediately hid behind Ash when her trainer's rival whooped in delight, but Ash calmed her down. "It's okay, Luna. Gary's always been noisy, but he's a nice guy. You'll begin to tolerate him in a day or two."

"At least I'm more famous than you," Gary sneered in response, although there was no bite in his words. "But, dang, that Clefairy is fine! I mean, it's a good enough treat to just see a beauty like her."

At that, Luna trilled in delight. Maybe the noisy boy wasn't as bad as she originally thought he was.

"Right!" Gary fumbled with the multitude of pokeballs on his belt. "My turn!"

And Gary let loose all eight of his pokémon in the suite. The first one Ash noticed and recognized was Gary's starter, powerful as ever. The Wartortle seemed much stronger than the time in Cerulean City, but he suspected Gary must've been training his pokémon intensively. The turtle had the same, confident smirk on her face, and leered when she noticed Saur, who growled right back. Apparently there was a fair bit of animosity between them since their previous battle.

Next up was a Raticate, who snapped its powerful jaws aggressively at Ash. The upper fangs looked especially sharp and long and was just an inch or two shorter than Wartortle. Raticate flicked his long tail and made a low growl at Ash, but Gary simply snorted.

"Yeah, yeah," Gary said with a roll of his eyes. "We all know you're tough, Raticate. Now shut it."

Raticate snapped at Gary, but the boy didn't seem intimidated at all. When he didn't get any reaction from his trainer, Raticate scuttled off to a corner, where he curled up into a ball and started sharpening his fangs.

Gary's third pokémon was a Machop, who seemed much calmer than the rest of his team. Then came a magnificent Pidgeotto who shrieked arrogantly to declare his presence. The fifth was an average-sized Growlithe who immediately pounced and Ash and started licking his face and barking amicably. Ash chuckled at his antics and hugged the fire-type hesitantly in response. He was warm to touch.

"Growlithe's the friendliest on my team," Gary said. "He gets along well with almost everyone, but he's no slouch in battle. He can take on Raticate and Machop in succession."

Ash raised his eyebrow at that, but didn't say anything. Gary was a pretty arrogant guy in general, but he never exaggerated about his own pokémon being stronger than others on his team. Ash knew Growlithe would evolve into a powerful Arcanine and become a force to be reckoned with.

"Then there's Nidorina, who's pretty strong in general—" he pointed at the blue creature, who growled happily in response and retracted the poison barbs on her body, "—and Drowzee; she needs a bit of training to catch up, if I tell you the truth…"

Drowzee didn't say anything to refute the statement, simply choosing to stare mysteriously at Ash. The tapir-like pokémon simply raised a yellow claw and groaned through his trumpet. Ash looked at her curiously for a second, then turned his attention to Gary's eight pokémon.

This was one Ash had never seen in his entire life. It was somewhat like a ball of steel, with sharp, green spikes protruding from all over its body. Two yellow eyes blinked at him and there were several, equally-spaced stripes of black running horizontally along its spiky body. The creature didn't make a sound and simply looked at Gary with a bored expression.

"What's that?" Ash inquired. "I've never seen anything like it before."

"This one is called Ferroseed," Gary informed his rival. "It's a dual grass/steel-type from Unova. Gramps has a breeding pair back home, so he got this little fella a few weeks back. He's pretty shy and doesn't interact much, but he battles pretty decent for a pokémon so young."

"Ferroseed…" Ash muttered. He kept staring at the grass- and steel-type for a long moment. Steel-types were pretty rare in the Kohto continent, the only ones being Steelix, Scizor, Skarmory, Forretress and the Magnemite line. Magnemite had several weaknesses that could be exploited easily and were a pain to train, while Skarmory were rare in general. Scizor were hard to procure since their base form, Scyther, were stupidly rare, along with Onix, who rarely came out from under the earth's crust. Plus, Scyther, Onix and Pineco each needed to consume a rare substance called the Metal Coat, which contained a rare ore that was similar to evolutionary stores.

"Quite a team you got there, Gary," Ash said, attempting to whistle but failing miserably. Gary guffawed at Ash's pathetic attempt and stopped only when the dark-haired boy kicked him in the shin.

"So where do we go now, Ashy-boy?" Gary asked, still rubbing his chin. "Hey, why don't we hit the casino? They offer rare pokémon and items as prizes, like Dratini, Scyther, Porygon, the like."

Ash shrugged. "I don't know. Don't you think we'll lose a lot of money instead of winning? Besides, I need money to buy TMs and stuff, since Red didn't give me the ones I need for my team right now…"

Gary's eyes bulged. "Red gave you TMs? What the _frick_? Why didn't Blue give me any?"

Gary breathed heavily through his nose. "That's it, Ashy-boy! You're coming with me to the casino whether you like it or not!"

With that, Gary recalled his pokémon and Ash's, forcibly dragging a struggling Ash to their next destination.

XxXxX

Ash glared at a slot machine, doing his best to win as many coins as he could to win his desired prize.

The casino was absolutely enormous and was very flashy, and several people were already in there, sitting at the slot machines and occasionally yelling out loud when they won something. It wasn't hard, but Ash was aiming at the jackpot which would win him 10,000 coins so that he wouldn't have to win anymore to get the prize he wanted.

The casino gave out an amazing number of rare pokémon: Pinsir, Scyther, Porygon, Dratini, Tangela, Abra, Lickitung, Eevee…The list never seems to end. Most of the pokémon were incredibly rare and Ash wanted to win at least one that would be an invaluable member on his team. So he'd set to work.

But after three hours, several tantrums and an unhealthy outburst, he'd only managed to procure 2,000 coins. That wasn't even enough to buy him an Abra, which was the cheapest pokémon on the list. There were also several TMs that were given out as prizes, but those seemed to cost even more than the pokémon themselves.

Ash sighed and slammed the slot machine before getting up and storming towards the counter with his case of coins. If he couldn't win anything, he could at least cash in the coins and get his money back. It took only a few moments for him to exchange the gold-plated coins and he exited with a grumpy expression on his face.

"How'd it go, Ashy-boy?" Gary ran towards him, a cheeky grin on his face.

"Completely lousy," Ash grumbled, lowering his cap. "I can't believe you talked me into this nonsense! I could've used my money for something better!"

"Aw, did ickle Ashykins get sad because he lost?" Gary said in a baby tone. Then his voice turned to normal and he snorted. "Just because you didn't get anything doesn't mean that I lost, too."

Ash whipped around in an instant. "Wha— You won something?!"he exclaimed, incredulous.

Gary smirked. He held up a pokeball, at which Ash only blinked dumbly, his mouth slightly agape. "What the hell!?"

"Sorry, Ashy-boy," his rival muttered. "Looks like I left you in the dust once again!"

"Damn you, Gary Oak!"

Gary simply chuckled and started walking away, spinning the pokeball on his index finger. Ash shook his head a moment later and ran after his childhood friend, a reluctant smile on his face.

XxXxX

An hour of sleep later, Ash waited impatiently for Gary to arrive at his suite. It was pretty late in the afternoon and he'd missed lunch, but he could always hit one of the ship's many cafeterias to grab a quick snack. He needed some quite time with his friends in his room before they went out to explore the place again.

Just before he was about to head to the deck without Gary, he heard a loud knock on the door. Before he could respond, however, the door had already swung open and Gary stood there, wearing nothing but blue, knee-length swimming trunks and shades over his eyes.

"You ready to hit the deck, Ashy-boy?" he said.

Ash nodded, but frowned a second later. "Where are your pokémon, though? Aren't you taking them with you?"

"Ferroseed, Drowzee, Nidorina and Raticate are back at the suite," Gary said. "They want to sleep in for some time, since they're pretty tired from last night's training. The rest are waiting outside."

Ash hummed in understanding. He looked back at his friends with a smile. "Come on guys, let's go! Delphi, you too," he added sternly. "No excuses."

He didn't like treating his friends with force, but if Delphi kept excluding herself from everything it was going to be heard to interact with her at all. He didn't know _what_ was up with her, but he was determined to find out. If only he could talk to her…

An idea clicked in his mind, but he stowed it away for later. The only thing they needed to do today was relax. He finally smiled when Delphi nodded and trotted out of the door and waited outside for the rest to come out.

"Okay – Hydrus, let's go!" he added hastily when the Psyduck seemed to doze off once again in the hot tub. "There's an even bigger pool for you outside. Are you coming or not?"

The water-type didn't need to be told twice. His eyes snapped open and he leapt out of the pool, half-heartedly shaking off water from his body before he rushed to the door, leaving a trail of water droplets behind him. Ash snorted at his Psyduck's antics but didn't say anything.

Ash turned and walked out, his friends following him loyally.

XxXxX

Ash grinned once they were out in the open. The ship was still tied to the port – it would stay in Vermillion City for one more day before setting off for Cinnabar Island – but Ash could still see the wide expanse of blue around the cruise liner. There were hundreds of pool chairs on the wooden deck and two, massive pools in the shape of pokeballs, with hot tubs in the center. A DJ was playing upbeat music, making everything seem more lively.

Everybody made happy sounds once they felt the warm breeze wash over them. Ash and Gary leapt onto two pool chairs and immediately let out gasps of delight once they stretched their muscles and began lazing around. Pidgeotto and Delphi immediately took off into the sky to stretch their wings and get a feel of their natural element. Ash drew a pleased expression on his face when he noticed that Delphi's flight was much smoother than before.

Saur immediately curled up at Ash's feet and began basking in the sun's warmth, his pink bud glowing slightly as he absorbed the sunlight. Zeus, Machop and Growlithe began playing a game of tag while Luna, Hydrus and Wartortle headed straight for the pool and caused a huge splash. The Clefairy had drawn several long gazes due to their rarity, but Luna simply ignored them and continued to play with Hydrus and Wartortle.

Most of the pool chairs were filled with passengers and the deck was scattered with their own pokémon. Most of the guests were nobles and wealthy families, although Ash noticed a two serious trainers like him resting under the sun.

The nobles and wealthy families seemed to have a wide range of exotic and rare pokémon with them. Ash noticed a rich girl about his age cuddling something that looked like a Natu, except it was covered it soft, pink feathers and had large, amber eyes. Another kid, with a butler around him, was grooming a Growlithe of his own, who seemed equally spoilt. An elderly gentleman had a massive bird by his side. It was covered in dark brown feathers with white on its breast and forehead, had huge claws and wings, a sharp beak and a superb red crest. The bird noticed Ash staring at it and shrieked in an attempt to show off its prowess.

Ash didn't need to be told it was powerful. One look told him everything.

"I'm living the dream," Gary slurred as he sipped his orangeade. He shifted in his spot, accidentally kicking Saur in the bud and waking the saurian up from his sleep.

Saur didn't like that. He growled angrily at Gary, but the spiky-haired boy simple rolled his eyes and taunted, "Yeah, yeah."

The Ivysaur didn't like that. His scarlet eyes narrowed as he glared at Gary. If the humans wanted to play like that, he would happily join.

"Gah!"

Gary screamed as he was flung into the pool with Saur's vines. The Ivysaur hadn't taken kindly to be kicked and woken up, so this was his form of revenge if the boy wouldn't apologize. Saur wasn't one to take anybody's crap.

All their pokémon completely stopped whatever they were doing when Gary hit the water with a huge splash and came up gasping and sputtering. The boy was completely drenched and his brown hair was plastered to his face. Gary wiped the water from his eyes and stared at Saur with a shocked expression. "What the _hell_?!"

Ash completely lost it as hysterics took over his body. Saur smirked in amusement, Zeus bleated in laughter, and Growlithe howled. Luna succumbed to a fit of giggles and even Wartortle and Machop snickered at the funny expression on their trainer's face. Only Hydrus quacked in surprise, but he too started making a weird noise a moment later.

"It wasn't that funny!" Gary cried in a shrill voice once he got out of the pool. He immediately shivered when he felt the cool breeze hit his wet skin, sending his teeth chattering.

Ash laughed one last time before he wiped the tears of mirth from his eyes. "I hope you learnt your lesson today, Gare-Bear," Ash snickered. "Never mess with Saur!"

Gary nodded, still shivering. He glanced at Saur, whose growl made him flinch and fall back into the pool once again, earning another round of laughter from everyone who (unfortunately) knew him.

XxXxX

After two days of enjoyment, relaxing, fine dining and light training, Ash found himself sitting in the stands of the St Anne's battlefield.

The arena looked really professional – bleachers on either side with comfy seats, and trainer boxes on each end. There were a lot of spectators present, but they didn't seem like serious trainers; Ash suspected they were just people who'd come for some entertainment.

The words Bill had told him kept repeating in his mind. The only major players that would be there would be spoilt, rich kids who only had trainer licenses so that they could own pets. Ash was sure he would easily win the tournament if only Gary wasn't there. It wasn't like he thought Gary was stronger than him, but if he was pitted against his rival he'd have a tough time trying to win. Both of them were at the same power level and it would be a long match if they went against each other.

Otherwise, he wasn't very worried. He scanned the spectators for a long time and smirked to himself. He had every chance of winning this tournament.

The chatter amongst the spectators was interrupted by the tapping of a mic. Ash winced as the sound pierced his ears, but calmed down when he heard a pleasant voice reverberating through the stadium.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the St Anne Pokémon Tournament, sponsored by the Don George family and their Battle Club, all the way from Unova!" a female voice greeted. "My name is Eleanora, and with me is—"

"Your worst nightmare, the gym leader of Vermillion City, also known as Captain Lightning in the Kohto Civil War 'cause I kicked a whole lot of ass with my electrical monsters!" a boisterous voice boomed, causing Ash to grimace as the words pounced in his ears.

Still, he couldn't help but grin. Lieutenant Surge certainly knew how to make an entrance.

"Yes," Eleanora said timidly after a few moments of silence that proceeded Surge's coarse words. "With me is the famous Lieutenant Surge! We'll be your announcers for the whole of the tournament! Can I hear some _nooooise_?!"

The crowd screamed in delight. Ash and Gary glanced at each other, their hearts pounding.

"Whew, that's a lot of noise, isn't it, Lieutenant?" Eleanora remarked cheerily, but she continued without waiting for a response from her co-emcee. "Looks like our guests can't wait for some entertainment!"

"And so can't I, Missy!" Surge roared in delight. "But we better explain the tournament before these runts make a fool of themselves!"

Ash snorted once again. Surge didn't care for one second about the way he portrayed himself to others.

Eleanora laughed nervously. "Right. We have sixty-four trainers participating, which means that we'll have six rounds of heated battles! This means that we will be having two preliminary rounds today, followed by the third round tomorrow along with the quarterfinals, and the semifinals and finals the day after! The finals will be broadcasted throughout the ship, so you can have a nice rest while watching the best of the best face off against each other!"

Another round of cheering. Ash hollered along with them, his heart beating faster.

This time, Surge spoke up. "In regards to the prizes, which will all be sponsored by the Battle Club," he announced, "only the top four will win prizes 'cause they ain't losers like the rest of ya chumps! Fourth place gets five great-balls, two full restores and a cash prize of 4,000 bucks. Third place also gets five great-balls, but also a bunch of full restores and 7,000 pokédollars! Third and fourth place will be decided by a battle right before the finals. Got it?"

"As for second place, the prize is two ultra-balls, two full restores, two TM vouchers that you can redeem at the St Anne's TM store, and a cash prize of ten thousand pokédollars!" Eleanora announced. "The winner of the tournament, however, receives _five_ ultra-balls, _five_ full-restores, _three_ TM vouchers, a stunning _fifteen thousand pokédollars_ and a _rare pokémon_!"

The crowd detonated like a nuclear bomb at that. All the participating trainers (most of whom were wealthy kids) looked at each other with gleaming eyes. Gary faced Ash with a smirk, his eyes narrowed in concentration.

"Sorry, Ashy-boy," he said. "We're friends and all, but not right now! That first prize is mine!"

Ash glared right back. "You're on!"

"So let's get started, shall we?" Eleanora remarked once the cheering lessened (since everybody was still excited from the announcement of the prizes). "The names of the trainers will he drawn at random! The rules for the preliminaries are relatively simple: the first round will allow the usage of only one pokémon, while the second and third will enable each trainer to use two. And for our first preliminary battle we have…"

"Gary Oak and Reana Newton!" Surge announced. "Get your asses on the field, now!"

Gary smirked at Ash. "Watch and learn!"

"Learn what? How to lose?" Ash smirked at his clever jab.

Gary stuck his tongue out at Ash and quickly ran down to the field before Ash could retort. He quickly joined his opponent on the field. Reana was a girl about their age, with chin-length red hair, tan skin and emerald-green eyes. She looked calm and didn't even acknowledge Gary, who waved at her.

"Coin Toss has determined that Reana will have the first move," Surge growled. "Release your pokémon!"

Reana stared at Gary for a few short seconds before sending out a Charmeleon. The fire-type aggressively thrashed its tail on the ground and brandished its fierce claws before letting out a challenging scream, demanding its opponent to show itself.

Gary didn't even waste a second and immediately let out his Wartortle. The water-type snickered when she saw Charmeleon, only provoking the aggressive fire-type by laughing at it. Reana looked hesitant for a second but quickly steeled herself and waited for the referee to declare the match as begun.

The referee slashed his hand down, and the battle commenced.

"Charmeleon, Flame Burst," Reana ordered easily. "Don't stop till it tell you."

"Rapid Spin over the field," Gary said. "Keep up with Iron Defense along the way."

Wartortle withdrew in her sturdy shell and began spinning away from the large fireballs, dodging the Flame Bursts with contemptuous ease. Time went ticking with Charmeleon missing each and every time until it finally grew frustrated a spewed an unending stream of fire at Wartortle, who kept flashing silver as she strengthened her defenses.

Even then, Wartortle kept dodging the Flamethrower, which bathed the field in fire in an instant. Finally Reana grew tired of the routine and snapped another order. "Aerial Ace/Thunder Punch combo!"

Ash felt his eyes widen at that, but the only possible explanation was TMs. Charmeleon rushed at Wartortle in a flash of white and yellow and slammed an electrified fist into the back of Wartortle's shell. The turtle grunted in pain as she was bounced back and crashed into the ground, but popped out a second later, seemingly unharmed.

"Torrential Spin!" Gary cried out.

Wartortle tucked into her shell once more and spun into the air, this time spraying blasts of pressurized water all over the field. Charmeleon snapped and snarled each time the Water Guns doused and slammed into him, and finally hurled a flurry of Thunder Punches straight into the Water Guns. The shock travelled all the way up through the streams and got several hits into Wartortle, who immediately grunted and dropped to the ground.

"Thunder Punch!" Reana commanded.

Charmeleon lunged at Wartortle, its fist crackling with electricity. Gary waited until Charmeleon was a few seconds away, the articulated an order. "Protect."

Charmeleon slammed its fist full-force into the emerald shield erected by Wartortle, snarling with surprise and brief pain from the sudden jolt it received for the indestructible barrier. With it momentarily stunned, Gary seized his chance. "Scald!"

Charmeleon was blown back by a highly pressurized blast of boiling water that sent it flying several meters away before bouncing on the ground. Snarling, Charmeleon pushed itself up, but it was obviously tired from the Torrential Spin and the close-up Scald. Wartortle snickered, enraging Charmeleon further.

Reana seemed indifferent. "Flame Charge."

"Iron Spin!" Gary countered.

Charmeleon stamped the ground once and its entire body quickly became enveloped in flames, then it charged at Wartortle, who began spinning towards her opponent at high speed while simultaneously strengthening her shell with Iron Defense. Gary was banking on the fact that Iron Defense would toughen Wartortle's body so that any opponent she hit would be further injured.

"Thunder Punch, hit it downwards!" Reana suddenly said.

Charmeleon growled in acknowledgement, bracing itself as it collided with Wartortle. The shelled creature crashed into the lizard's belly with a sickening thunk, but Charmeleon did its best to ignore the pain and smacked Wartortle into the ground with an electrified fist. Wartortle landed with a pained cry and popped out of her shell instinctively, only to be jabbed in the face with another Thunder Punch.

Wartortle's limbs were forced out of her carapace from the impact as she crashed hard into the ground. Charmeleon went in for another Thunder Punch, but Wartortle blasted it in the face with a Water Gun that knocked it to the ground.

"Aerial Ace!" Reana cried.

Gary's fist tightened. "Aqua Tail, put it to sleep!"

Ash watched as Wartortle's tail became encased in a thick veil of water, then she jumped in the air at Charmeleon. The fiery lizard got up just in time as Wartortle performed a forward flip and smashed the Aqua Tail into its skull. Charmeleon's eyes widened briefly in surprise and pain before it fell to the ground with a dull thud.

"That's it!" Surge called from the commentator's box. "Charmeleon is unable to continue! Gary's badass Wartortle wins!"

The crowd cheered loudly and Ash probably clapped the hardest as he rival waved at the audience, a cocky grin stretched over his face. Gary was loving the attention and so was Wartortle, who had the same expression on her face and puffed her chest proudly. Well, they earned it.

Reana calmly recalled her fallen Charmeleon and walked off back to her seat. "And that's just the first match, folks! The rest of our participants are about to have equally heated, if not more, battles! Our next two trainers will be Dissfa Bidge and Matt Dear…"

XxXxX

Ash nervously appeared at his designated corner. The next few battles had been a fair bit interesting, although there were several mismatches that Ash couldn't help but laugh at. Gary had been crooning over his Wartortle ever since he'd returned to his seat and Ash had been secretly relieved when his name was finally called out.

Ash's opponent was a vertically-challenged girl his age. She had silky blond hair tied in two buns and had heavy makeup over her pale face. She appeared to be from a wealthy family, since she was wearing a ball gown, pearl-white gloves, a diamond-studded necklace and a pokeball-belt that had only ultra-balls attached to it.

"Please lose for me?" she'd told him when he arrived at the arena. Ash had simply snorted at that and enlarged his pokeball.

"Let's give it up for Ash Ketchum and Angelica Rutledge!" Surge bellowed, earning a round of applause. "But we all know that Ketchum's gonna kick that little girl into next year in a matter of seconds, because that kid's got the biggest balls—"

"Thank you, Lieutenant," Eleanora snapped sharply, effectively stopping Surge from saying anything inappropriate. "As for our trainers, release your pokémon!"

"Go, Oshy!" Angelica squealed, gracefully tossing an ultra-ball in the air. The capture device snapped open, revealing a small, blue and white otter-like pokémon. Its face was pure white and the body was covered in longer, blue fur. It sniffed the air with its brown nose, and its dark-blue tail twitched when it noticed Ash.

"Oshy, get ready to battle!" Angelica ordered. Oshy scowled, but listened to its trainer and removed the scalchop from its torso and held it in its short, white hands.

Ash had never seen anything like it before, so he scanned it with his pokédex, which informed him that it was an Oshawott and was a water-type pokémon. Ash immediately thought of sending out Saur, whose pokeball was already in his hand, or even Zeus, who would fry the other-like creature in a second, but decided against it. Saur and Zeus were his trump cards and he didn't want to reveal his secrets at the very beginning.

"Luna, get ready." The Clefairy appeared in a flash of light and earned several gasps at her appearance, which she completely ignored. She was in battle and she would not let anything distract her. She curled her tiny fists and narrowed her eyes at Oshawott, who cringed back slightly at her alarming appearance.

"Begin!" the referee declared.

"Oshy, use Tackle!" Angelica said. The Oshawott half-heartedly began running at Luna with the intent of slamming into her with its entire body.

Ash almost felt sorry for the duo. It didn't take a genius to predict the outcome of the match.

"Luna, Sing and Wake-Up Slap. Make quick work of it."

Luna nodded, humming a centralized sleep-inducing song that hit the Oshawott dead-on and immediately put it to sleep. Angelica clutched at her face in horror as Luna wound her tiny fist back and pummeled Oshy with all her force and sent it flying across the field.

To no one's surprise, Oshy didn't get back up. Eleanora called it.

"Oshawott is unable to battle, and therefore Clefairy wins!" Eleanora said, bored. "My, that was quick!"

Surge roared in laughter. "What'd I tell ya? That Ketchum kid is a champ in the making! I won't be surprised if he unloads a can of whoop-ass on this tournament!"

Angelica recalled Oshy and stared at Luna, completely mesmerized by the Clefairy. "Will you trade it for my pokémon?"

Ash immediately shook his head, feeling offended by the question. "Nope. I have no intention of trading _her_."

And Ash walked back to his seat.

He was so bored that by the end of the first round he was asleep, and it was only thanks to Gary that he'd woken up in time for his name to be called for the next round, which, unlike the first, allowed trainers to use up to two pokémon. His first battle couldn't even be counted as one – it had merely lasted seconds, which showed that however rare a pokémon was, if it wasn't trained, it would be the equivalent of a flopping Magikarp.

Skill was learnt, not bought.

"And now we have trainers Alistair Theirin and Ash Ketchum!" Eleanora announced. "Trainers, assemble at the battlefield!"

Ash quickly got up from his spot and didn't say anything as he made his way to the dirt field. He wanted a heated battle, but he also wanted it to get over quickly so that he could head to do some training with his pokémon.

Alistair was a boy that seemed to be around twelve or so. He had an oily black crew-cut and had a lean build, and he was also pretty tall for his age. He wore an orange jacket and blue jeans, and had a belt lined with six pokeballs. Alistair gave Ash a friendly nod, a gesture which the dark-haired boy returned genuinely.

Alistair's first choice was a Vulpix. The fox pokémon wagged its six tails and shook its luxurious red fur, showing that it had been well cared for. Ash noticed this one didn't seem as bratty and vain like the rest of its species and seemed eager to battle.

He decided to send Hydrus. The Psyduck had an upper hand due to his advantage over fire-types, but Ash wasn't so overconfident to simply go easy on Alistair and his Vulpix just because of the type match up. After all, type advantages weren't everything.

Also, he wanted Hydrus to evolve as quickly as possible, and he would be ecstatic if his friend evolved mid-battle thanks to gaining a whole lot of experience.

Ash tensed as the referee raised his hand, then slashed it down. "Begin!"

"Water Gun," Ash instructed tersely, not missing a beat.

"Dodge with Quick Attack!" Alistair said.

Hydrus tilted his head in confusion for a moment, then spat a jet of water at Vulpix, who zigzagged away from the attack with a burst of speed, easily evading the first shot. Hydrus fired a few more Water Guns before stopping abruptly to frown, as if wondering why he was attacking.

"Fire Spin, then Quick Attack!" Alistair shouted.

Vulpix sucked in a huge amount of air, then exhaled fiercely and combusted the oxygen with its flame-producing organs to create a fierce vortex of fire that swirled towards Hydrus, who reflexively produced a powerful jet of water that quickly doused the fire. Undeterred, Vulpix shot at the Psyduck a split-second after he was done putting out the fire and head-butted his body, knocking him away.

"Flame Charge," Alistair said, grinning.

"Water Sport!" Ash commanded.

Just as Vulpix slammed into Hydrus with enhanced speed, the Psyduck glowed blue under the effects of Water Sport to soak himself in water and reduce the power of fire-type moves on him. Ash noticed Vulpix's cloak of flames reduce as soon as it made contact with Hydrus' body.

"Water Gun!"

Vulpix shrieked in agony as a quick jet of water fiercely blasted its body and repelled it a few feet away, where it rolled through the dirt for a few seconds, but it recovered and regained its footing just as another stream of bubbles crashed into its left flank. Vulpix let out a squeal of surprised pain, and, a few seconds later, turned to growl angrily at Hydrus.

"Will-O-Wisp!"

Ash narrowed his eyes as Vulpix generated a fierce red fireball that shot at Hydrus with alarming speed. It didn't look threatening on the outside, but Ash didn't dare underestimate it. The flickering red orbs had the power to inflict terrible burns on their targets.

And Ash wasn't going to let that happen. "Water Gun. Blow that little fireball out!"

Hydrus did as instructed a little faster this time and let loose a blast of water that easily washed out the intense, floating flame, causing a small wisp of steam to form where the Will-O-Wisp had been doused. Alistair eyed Hydrus warily before giving out his next command.

"Flame Burst."

Vulpix reared its head back and spat a gout of flame at Hydrus, travelling slowly at the Psyduck as the large blast flickered menacingly. Ash didn't know what technique Flame Burst was, but he didn't want to find out. "Water Pulse!" he yelled.

Water Pulse wasn't perfect yet; up till now, Hydrus could only form a sphere of water, but he simply couldn't muster enough energy for it to explode in a pulsing wave, so his Water Pulse was now just a spherical Water Gun. Still, it was enough to wash away the imposing flame that Vulpix had just belched out, and that was all Ash wanted.

The Psyduck quickly formed a fairly big sphere of water in front of his wide bill and launched it at the Flame Burst. He waited for the half-complete Water Pulse to overwhelm the Fla—

He flinched in surprise as the collision triggered a violent explosion from the Flame Burst's end, resulting in a plume of smoke that obstructed Hydrus' and Ash's view. The boy stood still. From what had just happened, Flame Burst seemed to be the fire-type equivalent of Water Pulse. He wanted to be there when Hydrus would finally master Water Pulse…

Ash was jarred out of his thoughts as a Will-O-Wisp suddenly tore through the veil of smoke and slammed into a surprised Hydrus. He'd completely zoned out of the battle, a move which had cost his pokémon a terrible burn. Hydrus quacked in pain and protest as the fireball scorched his belly, which had a painful burn mark. Ash grimaced; that certainly had to hurt.

"Yes!" Alistair pumped his fist in the air. "Vulpix, finish this off with a Hex attack!"

Ash felt his eyes widen and gritted his teeth a moment later. He did not want that to hit Hydrus.

Hex was a strange ghost-type move. It seemed pretty normal (as normal as ghost-type moves could get) but it had a peculiar effect – Hex doubled in power if the move was executed on a target that had a major status ailment – burns and poisons, for example. It converted the pain from those ailments into additional damage and was a brutal attack to pokémon who were burnt or poisoned.

Ash scowled when he saw Vulpix let loose a wave of odd energy that was expelled circumferentially, and he realized there was no way Hydrus would be able to dodge that. He decided to give Vulpix a little present before Hydrus was taken out.

The Psyduck quacked in obvious pain as his body erupted in flames from the burn. The wave of unearthly energy slammed straight into Hydrus and Ash recalled him before he could hit the ground.

Alistair looked triumphant at Hydrus' defeat. "You did good, Hydrus," Ash told the pokeball in his hand. "Now take a good rest."

"And Psyduck is down by a sneaky Hex!" Eleanora screamed over the mic. "Which, once again, shows that type advantage isn't everything in battle!"

"Lucky shot," Surge roared, drowning out the cheers for Alistair and his Vulpix. "But I bet ten bucks that Ketchum's next pokémon is gonna kick that Vulpix's ass in a matter of seconds! And I bet another ten bucks that it'll knock out Alistair Theirin's next beastie!"

Ash snorted at Surge's comments, but didn't do anything else except send forth his next pokémon. "Delphi, you're up."

Delphi shrieked intimidatingly and spread her wings in all of their glory, making the avian seem even bigger than normal. Vulpix was positively dwarfed under her imposing size, but it didn't seem scared for once, although it was very tired from the battle against Hydrus.

Alistair knew his pokémon was on its last legs and decided to make the most of it. "Flamethrower!"

"Into the air!" Ash said.

The Xatu erupted into the sky with a blast of wind from her powerful wings, forcing Ash to grip his hat tightly so that it didn't fly away. The plume of flames Vulpix had exhaled missed Delphi by a mile and the fox growled as it glared at the Xatu.

"Ominous Wind!" Ash called after her.

Delphi shred in acknowledgement, flapping her powerful wings to kick up a cyclone on ominous energy that quickly trapped Vulpix in the eye of the vortex, roughly whipping it around and mentally damaging the fox. The gale of unearthly power would trap and immobilize Vulpix for a few moments and would keep it in place for Delphi to finish it off.

"Drill Peck!"

Delphi rose into the air, the plummeted to the ground, tucking her wings in as her beak elongated and began to spin at incredible speeds. She quickly extended her wings before she was about to hit the ground, increasing her air resistance and safely maneuvering towards Vulpix, who was still struggling in the seemingly-never-ending Ominous Wind.

Vulpix screamed when it was crushed as Delphi tore through the veil of alien energy and drove right into its left flank, dealing terrible while also crippling it. Vulpix was blown back by the terrible force between Delphi's Drill Peck and rolled in the dirt for several seconds before it came to a standstill a few feet away from its trainer. Alistair grimaced at his defeated pokémon, then cradled it and recalled it in its pokeball.

"Turnaround! Ketchum's badass Xatu defeats Vulpix 'cause Theirin ain't trained it for shit," Surge boomed through his mic. "C'mon, Theirin. Fork over number two so that we can get this match over with."

Alistair didn't seem to think too highly of Surge, because his curses for the gym leader were a bit too loud for Ash to hear. Nevertheless, Alistair replaced Vulpix's pokeball for another and tossed it in the air, releasing his next fighter.

The pokémon that followed the bright flash had blue and yellow scales. The crocodilian creature had a cluster of red spikes on its body and its red eyes flashed when it noticed Delphi on the ground. Ash immediately recognized the pokémon as Croconaw, the evolved form of Totodile, one of the Johto starter pokémon. The croc opened its mouth and revealed forty-eight fangs that were ridiculously sharp. Croconaw snapped its jaws menacingly and growled at Delphi, its eyes flashing once again.

"Delphi, stay away from those fangs," Ash warned. "Go in for Air Slash."

"Destroy them with Slash!" Alistair countered.

Delphi nodded, taking to the air once again and slashing her wings in the air. Sharp blades of wind were launched at Croconaw, who swiped at them with glowing claws and effectively destroyed them, although a few managed to strike him on his arms and torso.

Croconaw snapped angrily when another Air Slash struck it cleanly across the face, forming a thin bruise. Alistair snapped his fingers. "Ice Beam. Don't stop until you hit it."

Croconaw complied, firing thick beams of icy energy that ripped through the air and headed straight for Delphi, who maneuvered around them with little difficulty. Her flight wasn't perfect yet but every moment she got to stretch her wings helped her improve.

Finally Ash grew tired of the game and called out his next order. "Drill Peck!"

Delphi nodded, her beak rotating as she flew straight for Croconaw, but then something odd happened. Her entire body flinched suddenly and the Xatu wobbled, losing control over her body until she was flying normally at Croconaw with no power to back her up. Delphi seemed to be as confused as her trainer and Alistair took his chance. "Ice Beam!"

Delphi shrieked as an icy ray struck her on the chest, forming a thick layer of ice on her body. The Xatu now completely lost control over her body and crashed into the ground hard. Croconaw fired another Ice Beam for good measure at Delphi, repelling her a foot away.

"Ice Fang!" Alistair was grinning now.

Ash finally recovered from his stunned surprise and clenched his fists. "Teleport!"

Croconaw clamped its jaws onto nothingness as Delphi teleported away in the nick of time, appearing ten feet in the air where she brushed off the thin layer of ice that was already melting on her body. She looked absolutely furious and shrieked angrily at Croconaw, who snapped right back at her.

"Shadow Ball!" Ash yelled.

He was still thinking furiously about what the heck had just happened with Delphi. She'd just abruptly stopped Drill Peck with no warning and turned into a sitting duck for Croconaw. That could've cost him the match and he could've been knocked out of the tournament in the second round itself.

He made a mental note to ask Alistair about it after the match. He could not let it go without knowing the truth.

Ash winced as he saw an Ice Beam narrowly miss Delphi. "Teleport, then Shadow Ball!"

Delphi vanished in a blur and appeared right behind Croconaw, blasting the crocodilian in the back with a shadowy blob. The water-type hit the field with a thud, but it pushed itself up with its short arms and snapped its jaws angrily, still ready to go.

"Air Slash!" Ash cried.

Alistair frowned. "Freeze them with Ice Beam, then crush them with Slash!"

Upon command, Croconaw exhaled a centralized sheet of icy energy that instantly froze the blades of wind that Delphi had fired at it and followed up with a quick series of slashes with its claws to shatter the frozen blades.

Croconaw shook off the ice crystals on its paws and flicked its tail, awaiting its trainer's next order.

"Ice Beam!" Alistair shouted.

An idea clicked in Ash's mind while Delphi's left wing was frozen, weighing her down. He waited as Delphi slammed her frozen wing into the ground, shattering the ice formed around it. "Delphi, teleport near Croconaw and lift it into the air!"

Delphi nodded, vanishing and appearing again behind Croconaw and fiercely gripping the croc by its neck in her talons. With a fierce shriek, she lifted the Croconaw into the air, who flailed and snapped his powerful jaws aimlessly in an attempt to get free, but her grip was like iron. She was not going to let go.

Slowly, but steadily, Delphi and Croconaw rose into the air, which was the strangest sight Ash had ever seen. The entire crowd was either gasping or silent as the larger pokémon lifted her opponent until she was forty feet in the sky.

"Oh, my!" Eleanora gasped through the mic. "What is Ash up to?"

"I don't know, but I can't wait to find out!" Surge commented.

Ash grinned. "Okay, Delphi! Hurl it to the ground!"

Delphi shrieked in understanding, but she did more than that. With all the strength in her body, Delphi performed a forward flip to build he momentum and flung Croconaw to the ground. The crocodilian shot towards the dirt field like a blue comet, and to add further injury, Delphi sped towards Croconaw and pierced its scaly body with a Peck attack, earning a furious scream of pain.

Alistair had had enough. He quickly recalled his pokémon before it could hit the ground and darted to his seat as the referee called the match. The crowd let out a round of applause for Ash and his Xatu, who slowly lowered herself to the ground a fumbled slightly for a moment before regaining her composure.

Ash smiled at Delphi. "You did great, girl." When he didn't get a response, he sighed and simply recalled her. He needed to work on her social skills.

"And Ash Ketchum had advanced into the third round of the preliminaries thanks to his powerful Xatu!"

Ash walked back to his seat after he waved at the cheering audience. Gary had that never-fading smirk on his face when he saw his rival. "That was pretty ingenious," he admitted, "But you aren't smarter than me, Ashy-boy. I can still kick your butt into next week."

Ash simply smiled back.

Gary leaned back in his seat and stared at the battlefield as another duo of trainers assembled on the arena. "So, what d'ya wanna do now? Ashy-boy?"

The dark-haired boy paused for a moment. "For now," he said, "let's train."

XxXxX

"I'm gonna _kill_ Blue!"

Ash chuckled as Gary screamed to himself in frustration as he was shown the wide range of TMs Red had given his rival. He looked downright furious and Ash wouldn't be surprised if Gary would begin frothing at the mouth.

Currently they were in one of the training rooms of the St Anne. The rooms were much better than the ones in the Battle Clubs and were built from the same technology that comprised of the inside of pokeballs, which meant that there was a whole lot of room for all of their pokémon to train in.

"It's not my fault for having such a loving brother," Ash defended. "Besides, most of my pokémon aren't even compatible with half the TMs Red packed for me—"

"So you're gonna let me use them!" Gary interjected rudely, snatching Ash's TM Case, "And you aren't going to stop me!"

Ash simply frowned, but didn't say anything. He didn't mind sharing his permanent TMs with Gary, but he wasn't going to let his rival just exploit their relationship for the information-containing discs. They were friends for a reason.

Still, he just watched as Gary inserted a pokeball into the circular slot as he transferred the information into his pokémon's mind. Ash's eyebrows went higher and higher as Gary repeated the process multiple times before returning it to Ash.

"There." He thrust the case at Ash with a pleased smile on his face. "Nice working with ya, Ashy-boy."

Ash simply snorted and took the case back while Gary released all eight of his pokémon. The dark-haired boy paused as he considered each of his teammates. Saur was pretty strong in his own right and would do good with another move or two, but the only TMs that he could possibly learn within this range were Toxic and Protect. He didn't want to try Toxic right now and Protect wasn't exactly needed, so he decided to pass.

He decided to teach Delphi Steel Wing. She needed another damaging move and he already had an idea for a technique that would help her a lot. So he set up the Steel Wing TM and downloaded the required information into Delphi's mind.

Next was Luna, but the only TMs she was compatible with were Shadow Ball and Protect. He didn't think Shadow Ball was really necessary for her to learn, and Protect, again, wasn't necessary either. So he skipped her too.

Ash skipped on Zeus after deciding to give the Flaaffy Charge Beam and went onto Hydrus. He immediately replaced Delphi's pokeball with the Psyduck's and downloaded the information for Scald into his mind. He waited for a few seconds until the case stopped whirring and withdrew the pokeball from the slot clipped it to his belt. With the initial preparations complete, Ash released the five pokémon on his belt. The five offered him their greetings and then waited for his commands.

"Okay, so today were going to work with Gary and his team," Ash told them. "We're going to help them with their training regimes and they us. So if you see anyone you'd like to train with, go with them. Delphi, Hydrus and Zeus, just wait back for a moment. We're going to learn some new moves tonight. I just want to see how good a grasp you have on them, so don't try to hard trying to make it perfect. Got it?"

Delphi chirped softly in understanding and stretched her wings in curiosity, while Hydrus simply looked at his trainer for an order. Zeus' body sparked for a second as he reached for the information that had recently been installed in his mind.

Ash pressed a button on the digital screen near the wall, causing three targets to shoot up from the ground. They looked exactly like the ones in the Battle Clubs and were probably of the same material.

"Okay, Hydrus." Ash pointed at the target in the middle. "Use Scald on that dummy."

Hydrus faced the target and immediately unleashed a blast of steaming hot water which struck the target perfectly. Ash grinned as he saw the target steaming slightly, which he was happy about. He was sure Hydrus would have Scald down in no time, probably because it was just identical to Water Gun, and all it involved was a drastic change in temperature that would have a chance of inflicting harsh burns on the target.

"Great work, Hydrus," Ash congratulated. "I'm proud of you. Delphi, you're up next. Steel Wing."

Delphi took off at the dummy with a flap of her wings, which immediately began to glow silver. She smacked the target hard with her metallic wings, which lost its glow a second after she struck the human-sized target. Ash winced. She probably had some trouble maintaining Iron Tail, so she needed to work on that.

"Delphi, keep working on Steel Wing," he suggested. "Don't swing for the moment; just try to maintain the hardness for as long as you can. I'll check up on you in some time."

Delphi gave a short nod and trotted off a good distance away while Ash turned his attention to Zeus. "Okay Z—"

Zeus didn't even bother waiting for a command. His mane of wool sparked with electricity and the air around him was suddenly charged with ozone. An intense beam of electricity as he took precise aim at the target, slamming into the stone dummy with great force. The target sparked for two seconds but there was nothing that followed it.

Ash nodded, impressed. Charge Beam was no doubt a powerful move, but Ash noticed that there were some problems with the accuracy, which meant that Zeus would waste some time taking aim at his opponent. Still, that would absolutely devastate any pokémon that was weak to electric-type attacks and that was enough...For now.

"That was awesome, Zeus!" Ash cheered. Zeus bleated and puffed his chest arrogantly.

"Okay," he said a moment later. "Zeus, keep practicing to improve your moves, particularly Charge Beam and Thunderbolt – keep working on the accuracy. Hydrus, I need you to work on Water Pulse. If you want, you can go up to Gary's Wartortle and ask her to help you…"

XxXxX

"Good job, Hydrus, keep it up!" Ash said, encouraging the Psyduck as the formed a sphere of water that slowly began to pulse with energy while Gary's Wartortle watched. Hydrus took aim at a stone target, reared his body back and then launched the orb of water with a burst of energy. As soon as the Water Pulse hit its mark, it exploded, albeit gentler than a normal Water Pulse, and completely drenched its target.

The problem with water was that I didn't do a lot of damage unless it had volume and force to back it. Water Pulse used high energy pulses to increase the amount of damage and make up for the less volume of water.

Hydrus simply stared when the Water Pulse failed to explode in the way it was supposed to and Ash sighed too. He was just so close… "It's okay, buddy. You'll get it. You just need to – okay, I don't know what you exactly need to do, but Wartortle does. Right?" he added, looking at the turtle.

She simply grunted in response and turned to Hydrus and told the Psyduck something in her native tongue. Hydrus nodded determinedly and watched as Wartortle formed a Water Pulse with ease and fired it at the target, which was blasted by a ferocious pulsing blast that took a good chunk out of it. Hydrus stared at it for a few seconds and began forming another attempt at Water Pulse once more.

Ash turned away and glanced around the room to take a good look at the rest, noting the progress of his own team. While Hydrus was mastering Water Pulse and Scald, Pidgeotto and Delphi were practicing Steel Wing (Gary had used the TM on his Pidgeotto). They were having a fairly good time, since all they were doing was maintaining Steel Wing for as long as they could and occasionally swinging at the air.

Meanwhile, Saur and Drowzee were having a full-blown pokémon battle that Gary was currently overseeing. Saur was trying to smack Drowzee with a multitude of his tentacles while Drowzee did her best to avoid every single attack he launched. Once the Ivysaur was done, she retaliated by unleashing barrage of Psybeams which Saur did his best to dodge. This way Saur would get to work on improving Power Whip and also increase his speed while he was not under the effects of Chlorophyll.

Elsewhere, Growlithe was helping Zeus learn Agility. The orange pup was obviously much faster and was even faster than Surge's Raichu. Gary had truly trained Growlithe hard, but Zeus was by no means a slouch. He was doing his best to keep up with Growlithe, but, sadly, the canine was simply too fast for him. Ash figured he'd get there in time.

Luna and Machop were also sparring. Luna was working on using Minimize and Cosmic Power together while Machop kept throwing a wild flurry of random attacks, ranging from Karate Chops to Low Sweeps. From what the pokédex told him, a Machop's muscles took a great amount of stress to finally get sore, so Ash figured that Luna and Machop could go at it for hours on end.

Ferroseed and Nidorina were practicing their newly-learnt moves on separate targets – Iron Tail for Nidorina and Energy Ball for Ferroseed. Nidorina seemed to have the same problem that Delphi and Pidgeotto had with Steel Wing – she just couldn't hold the metallic property long enough for her to strike her opponent. So she was currently flexing her tail while focusing steel-type energy in order to hold the attack for a longer period of time, while Ferroseed mustered as much solar energy as he could in order to prepare a true Energy Ball.

Ash put his arms on his hips and smiled. Everybody seemed to be doing their hardest. He watched Drowzee and Saur for a moment before they stopped their battle and took a break. Gary tossed a couple of berries to them and walked to Ash with a grin on his face.

"I hate to say it, Ketchum, but that Ivysaur of yours is fine," he said. "How the hell is so damn fast anyway? I mean, most of them rely only on their bulk…At least, that's what I've heard."

"He has Chlorophyll," Ash said with a smile. "When I win this tournament, I'm going to grab the first Sunny Day TM I find. It'll give him a huge advantage in battle."

"Uh-huh. But first you gotta beat me!" Gary made a raspberry sound at the end. "And that's never gonna happen!"

Ash snorted. "In your dreams."

They kept training for a couple more hours until they collectively decided to take a break. Ash immediately rested his back against Gary's as he poured cold water down his throat. Once he had his fair share, he sprinkled a little on Saur, who cooed in delight, and poured the rest over Hydrus, who quacked in happiness.

"It's time for some dinner," Ash announced, and he was happy to hear sounds of approval from everybody. He was famished. "Hydrus, wait up a moment. Do you think you've got Water Pulse down by now?"

Hydrus paused for a moment, then squeaked an affirmative. Ash turned to Wartortle, who grunted her approval as well. That was enough for Ash and he nodded at the Psyduck. "Okay, Hydrus. Let's see what you can do."

Ash, Gary, Hydrus and Wartortle all converged at a brand new target while the rest of the team rested in a secluded spot. Ash immediately looked at Hydrus and said, "Water Pulse."

The Psyduck took in a deep breath and closed his eyes in focus. Within seconds, a sphere of condensed water formed in between his clawed hands, pulsating with energy. A Water Pulse.

Ash nearly forgot how to breath as he saw Hydrus manage to maintain the technique and grinned a Hydrus. He pointed at the target. "Fire it!"

Hydrus launched it with a burst of energy. As soon as the Water Pulse impacted t target, it exploded violently and completely doused the target. Ah saw several cracks spread from the source of impact and grinned wider. "That was awesome, Hydrus! You finally mastered Water Pulse!"

Ash breathed through his nose and focused on Hydrus once again. "Let's get you checked up before dinner, Hydrus. I think you've earned a treat for this."

He was rather inclined to agree with him.

XxXxX

After checking up Hydrus at the ship's Pokémon Centre, Ash, Gary and their pokémon headed straight for the dinner Hall in their finest clothes – which wasn't saying much, since all they'd packed were casuals and clothes for travelling. Still, Ash and Gary both wanted to seem presentable to the nobles and rich businessmen and their families that would be attending the fabulous dinner the St Anne provided.

Pokémon were allowed to be present during dinner, but only if they didn't cause a ruckus. Ash had done his best to teach his friends how to behave and he was glad to say that they had decent table manners. The same went with Gary and his team.

They plopped down on a rather large table for ten, then let loose their pokémon, who immediately crowded around their trainers before staying as quiet as possible. Hydrus immediately rushed to his trainer and quacked eagerly while staring at the myriad of food on the table.

After nearly an hour and a half of eating while chatting, Gary let out an unruly belch and rose from his chair while patting his considerably larger belly. Ash looked at him curiously. "Where are you going?" He inquired.

Gary grinned. "When ya gotta go, ya gotta go." And he left.

Ash stared at him for a few seconds before shrugging and looking at his plate full of devilled eggs. His rival was really strange at times. Where was the bathroom anyway? He wouldn't be surprised if Gary had a gazillion to choose from, all with gold-plated seats that warmed themselves automatically—

He flinched when he heard a particularly loud clear of throat. Ash looked up to see a strange man standing a few feet next to him, with a thin, short nose, slender, arching eyebrows and light-brown hair that reached up to his chin. He looked pretty wealthy, because he wore a charcoal-grey sweater-vest over a long-sleeved lavender button up shirt. His pants were long and brown and his shoes were Derby-style, made out of brown leather. His right hand held an elegant, gold-and-black cane with an ultra-ball topping it and a silver tip, designed to let everyone know that they were below him.

Behind him was a familiar, pale-faced girl Ash recognized as his opponent in the first round of the tournament. What was her name…Verruca, Angela? Angelica.

"Good evening," he said in a silky voice. "Lord Arthur Rutledge."

Ash choked on his devilled egg, but thumped it down his esophagus before wiping the crumbs around his mouth. "Hello," he replied. "I'm Ash Ketchum. Can I help you?"

The man smiled at Ash, although he had an expression on his face, as if he'd just smelled something unpleasant. "Is someone sitting here?" He pointed at Gary's chair.

Ash nodded. "Yeah, he's just gone to the wash—" But the man had already seated himself and edged his chair a bit away from Ash. Angelica stood behind the man all the while.

Rutledge cleared his throat once again. "I am here to make a business proposition."

The boy seemed mildly interested and sat a bit straighter. "Okay."

Rutledge sniffed and continued. "I heard that you had faced my daughter earlier today in the tournament—" Angelina curtseyed, "—and she had told me that you are in possession of a Clefairy." Luna looked up at that, and Rutledge smiled even wider when his daughter squealed at the Clefairy. "You see, I simply cannot refuse my daughter anything, and I have a wide range of exotic and rare pokémon with me that I would have no problem trading for that rare specimen of yours—"

"No," Ash said immediately, and Rutledge stopped immediately with an offended look on his face. He noticed Luna staring at him with a befuddled expression and felt his face flush. When he thought that he'd sounded rude, he continued, "Sorry and all that, but Luna is one of my closest friends. I wouldn't trade her for anything."

Rutledge stared calculatingly at the boy for several uncomfortable seconds before he sighed and pulled out an elegant wallet. "How much?"

Ash blinked. "Sorry?"

"I said, 'How much?'," Rutledge repeated, pulling out a huge wad of pokédollars from the brown leather wallet. "Fifty grand? A hundred? I can pay any amount, you know, for the welfare and happiness of my daughter, of course. So—"

"Not interested," Ash repeated impatiently. "I already told you that she—"

Angelica began to sob crocodile tears. Rutledge looked incredibly sad and turned to Ash, glaring.

"Now listen here, _boy_ ," he spat. "You _will_ sell that Clefairy to my daughter, even I have to give the world for it. You will _not_ refuse my offer. Tell me, boy, how much do your parents earn? A few hundred a month? I can change that in an instant. All you have to do is _give_ _it_ _to_ _me_ and I will make you a millionaire instantly. I am a man of my wor—"

"Artie, my man!" he heard a nasally voice interrupt. Ash looked away from Rutledge's furious eyes to see Gary, a cocky smirk on his face as he squeezed Rutledge's shoulder like they were best friends. "What are you doing here? You're not hurting my friend, are you?"

"Who the bloody he—" Rutledge roared in ringing tones, but immediately stopped when he seemingly recognized Gary. His face contorted in worry and fear before a nervous smile stretched across his face. "Ah, M-M-Mr Oak!" he stuttered. "H-How are you? And how is your dear grandfather, Mr Oak?"

"Ah, Gramps is good," Gary replied nonchalantly, "but what are you doing here, Art? Surely you're not terrorizing my friend?"

Rutledge paled and laughed nervously once again. "O-Of course n-n—"

"Now listen hear, Lord Rutledge," Gary interjected pleasantly, although there was an undertone of warning in there. "If I ever see you even looking at Ash here, I will ring up the old man and tell him to cut off your damn deal. If he asks what the matter is, I can always lie and tell him that you turned pervy once again and tried to molest me. Of course, with your track record, he's obviously going to believe me and you'll not only lose the biggest deal of your life, but you'll also get to serve jail-time – again!" Gary grinned, then pulled Rutledge by his collar until they were only an inch apart. "Ya dig?"

Rutledge nodded frantically and stuttered in agreement, so Gary pushed the older man away and snorted. "Now get out of here."

Ash stared at the stuttering Rutledge and his daughter before looking at Gary in complete disbelief and awe. "Okay," he said slowly. "What the hell just happened?!"

Gary snickered and so did Wartortle. "Arthur's been trying to make a deal with Gramps," he informed. "Something science-y, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is that Artie needs to get on my good side, 'cause I'm the apple of Gramps' eye and if I tell the old man something bad about Rutledge the deals off. The thing is, Artie's got a bit of a nasty record with sexual abuse of minors, so it ain't gonna be pretty if that old coot even looks in your direction. Your under my protection, Ashy-boy, and for that you owe me big time."

There was an awkward silence for a moment before Ash nodded. "Thanks, Gary. That guy was really creepy."

"Don't mention it," Gary dismissed. "Anyway, you'll meet a lot of rich prats around here, who'll most probably treat you like shit, but don't let it bother you. We all know we'll kick their asses in battles, right?"

Ash grinned at that. "Right—"

"If it isn't my favorite champ in the making!"

Ash whipped around another voice, this one loud and unruly, tore through Ash's ears. Ash would've groaned if it was another rich person, but he knew this voice.

Lieutenant Surge was in the house.

The giant of a man strutted towards them with the most arrogant smirk Ash had ever seen. He seemed to have dressed up pretty well: a white, silk shirt that was unbuttoned near the neck, baggy trousers and pointed leather shoes. A heavy, gold chain with a pokeball sign hung around Surge's thick neck and a silver watch was strapped loosely around his right wrist.

"Hello, Surge," Ash greeted with a grin.

"Hello to you too, Ketchum," Surge replied. He jerked a thumb in Gary's direction. "And who's this greenhorn here? He looks a bit familiar."

"Oh, that's Gary," Ash introduced. "Gary, meet Surge. Surge, Gary. He looks familiar because he won the Thunder Badge from you, two."

Surge's grin widened. "Ah, you're the kid with the fangs, huh? Sammy Oak's third grandchild!"

"Yep, that's me," Gary admitted, "although the world's gonna quickly know me by my name! Everybody better watch out!"

"Those are some fighting words, Greenie!" Surge grinned largely, rolling up his sleeves to show off his muscled arms. "Don't pick fights you can't win!"

Gary sneered. "I beat you once, didn't I, and I'll do it again!"

Surge snorted. "Come after a couple of centuries, Greenie. Then we'll talk."

Before Gary could make another retort, Ash butted in and calmed them down. "Okay, that's enough! Can we please have our dinner in peace?"

Surge and Gary calmed down, but they were still making subtle, snide remarks about each other before Ash turned the conversation to their favorite pokémon. Surge said his was Emolga (Ash didn't know what it looked like) since his starter pokémon was one, and Gary made another rude remark at Surge's choice until chaos broke out between the two. It took four staff members to calm them down and finally they were asked to leave and find dinner elsewhere. Ash happily obliged since he'd eaten his share, while Gary and Surge decided to head to a nearby restaurant and catch up with their dinner. The arrogant boy and gym leader agreed for what seemed like the first time and all animosity was forgotten.

"Good night, Surge," Ash called. The giant of a man simply waved back and headed to his own room (First class 032). Ash swung his door open and turned back to wave at Gary, who yawned back. It had been late for all of them.

"'Nighty-night, Ashy-boy," he slurred. "Wake me up tomorrow if we're going to train together again. 'Kay?"

Ash hummed his assent, then watched Gary walking to his suite for a few seconds before slamming the door shut. He quickly let loose his team before groggily changing into his pokeball-patterned PJs and leaping onto the bed.

Hydrus instantly took to the hot tub and cooed as the warm water soothed his body. Luna sneaked up under the bedsheets and quickly fell asleep next to Ash, while Saur, Delphi and Zeus scuttled into the second bedroom and made themselves comfortable there. Ash didn't know whether they were staying awake or going to sleep, but frankly he didn't care at the moment. He was too tired to even think.

He soon forgot about everything as he felt himself sinking into a cloud and fall into a deep slumber.

XxXxX

"Alright, now Water Gun!"

Hydrus paused for a second but then opened his bill, expelling a fast jet of water at Machop, who back flipped and dodged the initial blast of water, although a second Water Gun struck him in the face and the fighting-type caterwauled to the ground.

Machop grunted, then lunged at Hydrus with a glowing, white fist. Machop hurled the Mega Punch at the right moment, and the Psyduck jumped aside at the right time to the dodge the attack, but Machop instantly changed tactics and dropped to the ground and kicked at Hydrus' ankles, tripping him up. The water-type fell to the ground.

Ash waited. "Scald!"

His Psyduck tilted his head in confusion, then reared his head back and took aim before releasing a pressurized stream of superheated water at Machop. Machop leapt away, but Hydrus quickly directed the Scald at his opponent like a fire hose and blasted the Machop a good distance away.

Hydrus quacked importantly when Machop hit the ground, but his shoulders sagged in disappointment when Machop easily pushed himself back up.

Machop grunted in assent to Ash's statement, but winced as he touched the place where the Scald had struck him. Even though he hadn't received a burn, that had to hurt.

Ash was currently training Hydrus to respond quicker to orders with the help of Gary's Machop. So far so good, but Ash snorted as he remembered the time when he'd called for a Scratch and Hydrus had simply stared at the floor below him. He'd received a terrifying Mega Punch for that silly move.

Ash made the time-out sign and took out a bunch of Sitrus berries from his pouch before giving an equal amount to Machop and Hydrus. Good job, Hydrus. And thanks for helping, Machop."

Machop simply nodded and began flexing his muscles while munching on the berries in his mouth. Hydrus devoured his share in seconds and quacked in excitement.

Ash looked at his pokégear, which read 12:47 PM. They'd been going at it for five hours now, and Ash and Gary were happy to say that their pokémon were doing much better. Ash's team in particular were training with new vigor, which had something to do with Hydrus' recent mastery of Water Pulse. All of them didn't want to be left behind and were doing their hardest.

Delphi could now maintain steel-type energy for fifteen seconds now, with Pidgeotto not far behind. The same thing could be said for Nidorina and her Iron Tail. Saur was teaching Ferroseed Energy Ball and learning Magical Leaf from Luna simultaneously. Currently Ash's Xatu was working with Gary's Drowzee to learn Psychic together on extremely heavy boulders in the room. So far they could only lift them for a few seconds before loosing their psychic grip on them, but, being psychic types, Ash knew they would learn it in a week or two. Zeus was working on improving Thunderbolt, which, Ash was glad to say, was nearly perfect. The Flaaffy was doing his best to tag Raticate, and sometimes hit him with the powerful electric-type move, much to the rodent's displeasure.

A short while later they headed for lunch, which was a pleasant affair, if you didn't count stumbling into Arthur Rutledge while entering Sapphire Rainforest. The wealthy businessman immediately paled when he noticed Ash and Gary and scuttled away faster than an Arcanine, much to their amusement.

The Sapphire Rainforest had their own play area for pokémon, and their teams took full use of it. There was a small lagoon where Hydrus and Wartortle rested in, while Saur looked around in mild interest before lying on a warm patch. Gary and Ash ate in silence for a short period of time before paying a stunning amount and heading to one of the decks.

"Okay, guys," Gary said, "enjoy yourselves!"

Not long after they got in, Surge and his pokémon joined their little group . Ash and Gary had instantly recognized the burly gym leader even from across the deck – he was that huge. Surge decided to liven things up a bit by throwing the pair of boys straight into the swimming pool like a bunch of playthings, much to their pokémon's amusement. Surge simply grinned maniacally when the two boys tried – emphasis on tried – to drag him into the pool as well, but quickly turned alarmed when Saur and Drowzee joined in the fun.

After that, Surge had taken to introducing his pokémon to the duo, who found it very exciting. The first pokémon Surge introduced was the Emolga he kept blabbering about. It was a small, white and black creature with a yellow, cape-like membrane that didn't look at all threatening, mostly because it was a little over a foot tall. Ash had been very disbelieving when Surge had told him that Emolga had once taken down Erika's Meganium in a couple of hits, but Surge wasn't one to lie. Yes, he exaggerated, but there was truth in most of the exaggeration.

Next was a massive Fearow that took the air with such a powerful flap of its wings that Ash was knocked to the floor. The bird took off with a quick blast of wind from its powerful wings and Delphi and Pidgeotto flew after it with a loud shriek, although the latter stayed a good distance away from Fearow's sharp beak.

Surge's third pokémon was a hulking behemoth with an impressive, muscular build. It had yellow fur covering its entire body with thick of black on its arms, legs, torso and head. A pair of horns rested atop its head in the shape of lightning rods and twin black tails flicked slowly behind it. Surge called it an Electivire, the evolved form of Electabuzz. Apparently it was the strongest fighter on Surge's team and Ash didn't doubt it. Electivire certainly seemed strong enough to match Bruno's infamous Machamp.

Next was a seven feet long beast that Ash's pokédex identified as an Eelektross. It had two, long three-clawed arms, sharp, red eyes and a gigantic sucker for a mouth, circled with fangs. It looked like a water-type, but Surge told him that it was in fact an electric-type from Unova. Eelektross had quickly levitated in the air and coiled up behind Surge's chair (which had surprisingly not broken under his weight).

Aside from the main attractions, Surge had also brought along a Jolteon, Raichu, and Magneton. All three of them seemed to be as strong as the rest of their comrades. Jolteon immediately went to licking its fur, while Raichu curled up on Surge's chest and Magneton simply hovered monotonously.

"Cannonball!"

Ash instinctively raised his arms as a shield when Gary crashed into the pool, sending a massive splash of water in his direction. Ash groaned when he was drenched and Saur growled angrily at the human who had interrupted his sleep. Surge scowled in annoyance, his Raichu doing the same as its fur was soaked in water.

"You jerk!" Ash growled, scrambling up to his feet. Gary stuck his tongue out at Ash while Wartortle snickered unashamedly next to her trainer.

Ash leapt into the pool, tackling Gary underwater. They both came up gasping a spluttering, and quickly began wrestling with each other, neither managing to keep a grip on the other for more than a few seconds.

Ash didn't even realize when it was time for the tournament to pick up where it left off.

XxXxX

"…sponsored by the Don George family and the Battle Club!" Eleanora announced. "Today marks the third round of the preliminaries along with the quarterfinals! By the end of today's events, only four trainers will remain for tomorrow's semifinals, followed by the finals! Are you readyyyyyyyyy?!"

The crowd cheered loudly in response. Ash grinned wildly as Surge and Eleanora took turns in commentating for a while before they started calling out the names of the trainers that would be participating in the first battle of the third round.

Four battles had already gone by before Gary's name was called out, along with another trainer by the name of Sierra, and the spiky-haired boy easily won his match with the help of his Drowzee and Raticate. Gary had been toying with Sierra's Doduo until he finally gave Drowzee the order to finish the job. Doduo had dropped down like a sack of rocks after a well-aimed Hypnosis, followed by a series of powerful Psybeams that took it out in seconds.

Sierra had then sent out an ordinary Beedrill in Doduo's place, and Gary had casually replaced Drowzee with his Raticate. The rodent had quickly taken out Beedrill with a Crunch/Hyper Fang combo and had shaken the Beedrill ruthlessly before letting its unconscious body go.

Ash immediately readied himself when he realized he was going last, since his name hadn't been called for the seventh match, which was between a stunningly beautiful girl a year older to him and a grubby-looking boy. Ash watched as the girl's Cubone hurled its club, which found its mark and slammed against the opponent Houndour's skull with a dull thunk. The crowd roared in approval as the referee declared the girl – Giselle, or something like that – the victor and then Eleanora and Surge called his and his opponent's names.

"Alex Reid and Ash Ketchum, assemble on the battlefield!" Surge called.

Ash did as instructed, tapping a pokeball on his belt as he made his way onto the field. His opponent was a young girl, probably a year or two older to him, with a pudgy face and frameless spectacles for her small, brown eyes. Her attire consisted of a green tee and brown camo pants, and she met Ash's gaze nervously, giving him a short nod, a gesture which he returned.

"The rules are the same as the previous round's," Eleanora informed. "Only two pokémon are allowed on either side, with no substitutions and no time limit. Trainers, select your pokémon!"

Alex nodded and made the first move, sending out a pokémon that he recognized as a Sneasel. It flashed its sharp claws and snickered devilishly to itself before winking at Ash, who made a weirded-out face at that. Ash considered who to send out before releasing Zeus onto the field.

The Flaaffy bleated his presence and his mane of fluffy, white wool sparked with electricity. Zeus waved at his trainer before forming an angry growl in his throat as he considered Sneasel, who hissed back at him.

The referee slashed his hand down. "Begin!"

"Zeus, Thunderbolt," Ash said.

"Super Speed," Alex ordered quickly. "Hone Claws."

Sneasel snickered before rushing off with an inexplicable burst of energy that easily allowed it to avoid the blast of electricity. Zeus blinked as Sneasel darted around the field, his frustration growing as Sneasel kept dodging the jagged bolts of lightning he kept firing at it, sharpening its claws along the way.

"Metal Claw!" Alex shouted.

Zeus grunted as Sneasel slashed at him with its sharp, metallic claws, but before it could dart away the Flaaffy electrocuted it with a surprisingly precise Thunderbolt. Sneasel hissed in annoyance and pain as it was knocked to the field, but it leapt to the right to narrowly avoid another Thunderbolt from Zeus.

Ash chewed his lip nervously. Sneasel was not the kind of opponent Ash wanted to face right now. It could easily deal swift attacks before dodging Zeus'. The only way he'd be able to hurt thus thing was if his Flaaffy got in a lucky shot, or if he managed to paralyze the thing.

An idea clicked into Ash's mind; there might be a way to kill two birds with one stone. "Zeus, use Cotton Stun. Don't stop until you get it!"

Zeus nodded, unleashing a flurry of electrically-charged balls of cotton at Sneasel, who kept darting its way out of it. The reason Ash liked Cotton Stun so much was that the opponent completely disregarded it because it looked so harmless on the outside, but the real effect started when the spores stuck to their pokémon and not only induced paralysis but also slowed down the target even further, which was the primary function of a normal Cotton Spore.

Ash frowned. If Zeus was going to evolve into an Ampharos, how the heck was he going to manage Cotton Spore? It seemed impossible…

He shook away the thoughts when Alex simply grew tired and ordered her Sneasel to slash its way through the onslaught of Cotton Stuns. Sneasel nodded, easily shredding most of them, but several managed to get attracted to Sneasel's fur and stick to its body. Sneasel ignored the sticky spores that began to weigh it down at first, but winced as a paralysis-inducing charge was dispersed into its body through them.

Ash grinned when Sneasel's muscles contracted and rendered it immobile for a few seconds, but those few seconds were enough. "Iron Tail!"

Zeus bleated a battle cry before smashing his metallic tail into the back of Sneasel's skull, knocking it to the ground and earning a hiss of agony from the gangly ice/dark-type. Zeus snorted, but just as he was about to hit Sneasel with another Iron Tail, it slashed at his ankles, tripping him up, and bounced away swiftly, although it was considerably slower than before.

"And what is that?" Eleanora said. "Ash Ketchum's Flaaffy paralyses Alex Reid's Sneasel with an unusual variance on Cotton Spore! How will Reid get rid of those disadvantage?"

Alex was currently munching on her fingernails in record time. "H-Hone Claws, Sneasel!"

Sneasel nodded, sharpening its claws with surprising speed as they slowly grew a dark outline around them. Ash had no intention of Sneasel making its claws an even more dangerous weapon than before. "Stop it!" he ordered. "Thunderbolt!"

A blast of lightning ripped through the air, slamming into Sneasel's chest, knocking it away like tumbleweed. The sharp claw pokémon hissed as it pushed itself up with lean arms, furious at the Flaaffy for breaking its concentration. The ice/dark-type hissed once again before lunging at Zeus with its razor-sharp claws, slashing wildly and with such speed that Zeus could only back away step-by-step.

Suddenly Sneasel froze as the paralysis took over its body, and Ash grabbed at the chance. "Iron Tail!"

Zeus grinned, spun and smacked Sneasel upside the head with his metallic tail, which struck Sneasel's lower jaw, lofting it into the air and hurling it into the opposite direction. The sneaky pokémon hit the ground roughly with a squeak of surprise before, all of a sudden, its entire body went limp.

Alex hastily recalled Sneasel and switched its pokeball with another. Reid didn't seem too surprised by the loss – she probably knew that Sneasel were rather fragile creatures that capitalized on their incredible speed and power. They weren't known for being durable pokémon and if the ice-types took two or three big hits they would be out of the battle.

Alex's second pokeball snapped open, revealing a black, nebulous creature with large eyes and a small, two-fanged mouth. The amorphous pokémon was surrounded by a thick, violet, translucent vapor that kept hissing around the Gastly.

Ash wasn't sure where Alex had found the creature, but it had to be somewhere near Lavender Town, where all of Kanto's creepiness was stowed away in one landmark – the Pokémon Tower. The Pokémon Tower was a favorite haunt of ghost-types and the Elite Four member Agatha was said to be originally from the gloomy town itself.

Ash was actually grateful to Alex for choosing Gastly since that reminded him of something – he needed to capture a ghost-type in order to defeat Sabrina and her notoriously powerful psychic-types, which were conveniently very prone to damage from ghost-type attacks. Ghost-types weren't exactly common, and since the Pokémon Tower did have ghost-type pokémon within its structure, he made a mental note to check it out.

He focused once again on the battle. He'd have plenty of time to plan later.

"Charge Beam," Ash ordered.

Alex didn't miss a beat. "Sucker Punch!"

Just as Zeus was about to expel a concentrated beam of electricity, Gastly blurred at him and roughly slammed into Zeus' stomach while being enveloped in negative energy. Nevertheless, Zeus managed to fry Gastly's nebulous body with a particularly nasty Charge Beam that devoured the spirit entirely as it blasted it away.

That didn't deter Alex, because she called her next command without hesitation. "Grudge!"

Gastly suddenly emanated a thin beam of black energy that zigzagged through the air peculiarly before piercing Zeus. Although he showed no signs of pain, the Flaaffy immediately turned sluggish, like as if he'd just come out of sleep. His eyes looked weary and his face was twisted into a grimace, but Gastly looked no better. The ghost looked equally tired and winced as pain took over its gaseous form.

Ash didn't know much about Grudge, but he knew now that Gastly had dealt almost equal damage to itself than to Zeus, whose grimace seemed to worsen by every few seconds. He couldn't explain it, but he needed to finish the battle quickly before Zeus' condition worsened.

"Quick Tail," Ash ordered tersely.

Quick Tail was what it suggested – a combination of Agility and Iron Tail. Without hesitation, Zeus slipped into Agility, his tail flashing silver as he darted at Gastly. The Flaaffy jumped into the air and performed a forward flip, swinging his tail at Gastly's amorphous for—

"Hypnosis!" Alex screamed, a moment too late.

Gastly's eyes glowed blue as it released an invisible wave of hypnotic rings at Zeus, although he fell asleep only after smashing his Iron Tail into Gastly. The ghost-type's gaseous body shimmered as the Iron Tail swiped through its body and knocked it out of the game.

Alex recalled Gastly just as Zeus fell to the ground with a thud, already fast asleep. Alex spun around and took to her heels, but not before giving Ash a short nod. The referee called the match and the crowd cheered for Ash.

Surge immediately began to unashamedly boast about Ash and his team. "I knew it!" he bellowed. "Ketchum wins thus round with his fab Flaaffy, who kicks a whole lot of ass despite his crappy appearance! How much will this runt surprise us, I don't know, but what I do know is that y'all better get yourselves some adult diapers 'cause shit's 'bout to get real and—"

"And that marks the end of the third round of the preliminaries!" Eleanora declared, her voice even louder than Surge's in an attempt to drown him out. "The next round will take place in sixty minutes, so hold onto your seats, folks! We'll be showing a special video clip of Champion Lance himself to keep you entertained during the interval—"

"Man, why the heck does Surge keep harping on about you like that?" Gary asked out of sheer curiosity once Ash had taken his seat next to his rival. Right at that time, the huge screen in the stadium flickered to life, showing Lancelot Blackthorn, the Dragon Master, walking onto the massive Ever Grande Stadium battlefield that positively dwarfed the St Anne's. Ash didn't bother responding to Gary immediately, instead choosing to watch Drake, the Dragon King of Hoenn, face off against his ex-student.

Only when Gary jabbed him in the side did Ash reply. He shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe he sees my potential of being a Pokémon Master," he teased. Gary simply snorted and then they watched the video clip in silence.

Ash didn't pay much attention since he'd already seen it before; heck, all four Pallet Town trainers had watched every single one of Lance's matches prior to their journeys. He already knew the outcome – Drake's Salamence would get a lucky shot with its Draco Meteor in the end and defeat Lance's Kingdra before succumbing to its own injuries, which had been gained from countless Ice Beams and Dragon Pulses.

He and Gary waited for a while before collecting their pokémon from a Pokémon Centre that was stationed right in the stadium. So far Zeus hadn't gained many injuries, since all he'd taken were a couple Metal Claws and Fury Swipes, and the rest of his team were up and ready as well. So he made his way to his seat just as Eleanora and Surge appeared at their mics.

"Hello once again! Whew, that League battle between Lance and Drake was something, wasn't it?" Eleanora said, and the crowd roared. "That's really got me fired up! I can't wait for the quarterfinals to begin!"

The crowd bellowed once again and Ash found himself grinning. That was true. The spark he'd felt by watching the intense fight flared to life and he couldn't stop feeling jittery. He felt like he could train for hours on end without taking even a second-long break.

"The rules for the quarterfinals are similar to the previous rounds," Eleanora said slowly. "Two pokémon per trainer, with no time limit and substitutions, but the only difference is that this round will have double battles! Are you ready?!"

Ash blinked at that. Double battles? It wouldn't be much of a problem, but the last double battle he'd been in was a fiasco. Still, that was mostly since he'd been teaming up with an arrogant brat, but this time, since he was alone, he didn't have to be in sync with another person. He could hand it all by himself.

"Our first pair will be…" Eleanora paused dramatically. "Gary Oak and Henry Oppenheimer, Prince of Nostrum!"

Gary winked at the crowd as he strutted onto the field. He faced off against his opponent, who had gelled black hair, big blue eyes, and the most bored expression humanly possible. Next to him was an elderly gentleman – possibly his butler – wearing a simple black suit and holding something like a sliver platter that held three pokeballs. Prince Henry tugged onto his deep blue designer suit before scowling at Gary.

Gary was given the first move and sent out Nidorina and Ferroseed, whose spikes immediately jutted out of his body. Henry looked at the pair uninterestedly before saying something to his butler, who immediately chose two pokeballs from the platter and released a Growlithe and a strange white creature, with a growth like green hair, two red 'ears' and something like a white skirt. It looked like a green-and-white ballerina standing on its dainty toes.

Ash's pokédex identified it as a Kirlia, which was a dual psychic- and fairy-type. Henry's choice of pokémon were a good counter to Gary's – Kirlia had an advantage on Nidorina while Ferroseed was at a huge disadvantage to Growlithe. But Ash knew his rival could get himself out of this sticky situation.

Henry and Gary locked eyes. Then the referee said one word, and the battle began.

XxXxX

The first match passed by fairly quickly. Gary had won – Ferroseed had forced Kirlia into attacking him before taking it down with a couple Gyro Balls, while Nidorina had released a bunch of Toxic Spikes that pumped debilitating poison into an unaware Growlithe, rendering it helpless. While Henry bawled his eyes out, Nidorina delivered a bunch of Double Kicks before putting the pup out of its misery with Poison Jab.

The second battle was also over in a short amount of time – the trainer's Chansey had steamrolled its way through the opponent in a matter of minutes. Ash winced when Chansey had knocked out its opponent with a Double Edge with such ferocity that was relatively unknown in such a normally-calm pokémon.

Ash's battle was third. He readied himself and walked onto the battlefield, assessing his opponent.

Hank Warner was a teenager with buzz cut that made him appear almost bald. He had blonde hair, fair skin and wide, black eyes. His attire consisted of a yellow checkered tee with a pair of blue jeans. Hank gave Ash a friendly smile and nodded at him. Ash grinned back at him, at ease due to the teen's friendliness.

"Trainer Ketchum, you've been given the first move," the referee said. "Release your pokémon!"

Ash did as instructed and grabbed two scratched pokeballs before tossing them into the air to release the captures. Luna appeared with a trill and a hum while Saur growled fiercely and reared back onto his hind legs before stomping on the ground. The Ivysaur extended two, thick vines and smacked the ground with them, demanding Hank to release his pokémon.

Hank snorted at Saur's behavior before tossing two great-balls. The two capture devices snapped open with a burst of white, sending out a Pidgeotto and a Charmeleon. Ash frowned – was there a sale on eBay for those fire-lizards? This was the fourth pokémon belonging to the Charmander line that he'd seen in the past month. Still, he grew wary by the fire-type's and Pidgeotto's presence. Both had a type advantage on Saur, and if he didn't play this one carefully it could cost him the match.

"Begin!"

Hank yawned, still smiling. "Do your thing, guys."

Pidgeotto squawked and Charmeleon nodded, then the two fired an Air Cutter and Flamethrower simultaneously. Luna and Saur waited until the plume of fire and blades of wind were a few seconds away from striking them, then leapt out of the way in the nick of time.

"Saur, Effect Spore!" Ash commanded. "Luna, Cosmic Power!"

Saur grunted and released a huge cloud of spores from his mouth and bud. Effect Spore was a combination of Sleep Powder, Stun Spore and Sleep Powder, and Ash was banking on inflicting a status ailment on Charmeleon or Pidgeotto or both to make the battle easier.

Charmeleon opened its mouth and blasted the air with Flamethrower, which instantly incinerated the spores heading his way. Saur backed away in panic as it swept the fire from one side to another, ensuring all the remnants from his attack were destroyed.

Meanwhile, Luna had done powering herself up with Cosmic Power, her defenses much sharper than before. "Defense Curl!" Ash cried when Pidgeotto rushed at her with glowing wings, and the Clefairy curled up into a ball and glowed white to raise her defenses once again just as Pidgeotto smacked her with its wings, pushing her only a mere foot away. The avian shrieked when Luna pounded it on its head with her tiny fists before it flew away.

Hank kept watching calmly, not giving a single order.

"Saur, Vine Whip on Pidgeotto!" Ash said. "Luna, use Pound on Charmeleon!"

Saur unleashed a flurry of speedy vines at Pidgeotto, hammering at the large bird continuously while it slashed at the green tentacles with its wings. Saur winced whenever a vine was severed, but it was only a minor discomfort – the vines would regrow relatively quickly.

Charmeleon kept bathing the field in flames as Luna made her way to the aggressive fire-type. She kept minimizing whenever the flames came too close for comfort and then darting at Charmeleon whenever it grabbed a breath. When Luna came close, the crimson beast snapped at her with flaming jaws, but she leapt onto it and ruthlessly began pummeling Charmeleon on the back of its head.

Pidgeotto shrieked as a vine slammed into its right wing, knocking the bird out of the air. Saur took advantage of it and hammered it a few more times before Ash gave another order. "Restrain it, then use Effect Spore!"

Instantly three vines wrapped around each of Pidgeotto's wings, tightening their grip whenever Pidgeotto tried to break free. Hank opened his mouth for an order, but before he could say a word Saur blasted Pidgeotto in the face with a bunch of spores that induced paralysis and pumped debilitating poison into its bloodstream.

Hank looked worried. "Charmeleon, Flame Charge!"

Luna screamed when Charmeleon's body burst in flames, and immediately jumped off, her hands scorched. Charmeleon immediately whipped around and rammed into the Clefairy, still cloaked in flames.

"Stored Power!" Ash yelled quickly. "Power Whip!"

A thick, glowing green vine shot out from the base of the bud on Saur's back and rocketed towards Pidgeotto like a bullet and smacked it hard on the back of its neck. The bird screamed in outright pain, its eyes bulging out in agony from the powerful version of Vine Whip. For good measure, Saur hammered Pidgeotto once again, knocking the bird to the ground.

Ash grinned. Power Whip was far from perfect and took up a long time to charge, but Saur was getting better at it. At least Pidgeotto was knocked out.

"And Ivysaur kicks Pidgeotto's ass despite a type friggin' disadvantage!" Surge announced. "What'll Warner do now? Is he gonna cry?"

Hank didn't react to Surge's comment and kept staring at Saur and Luna. "Flamethrower, full power!"

"Restrain it!" Ash commanded. "Use all your vines. Luna, distract it with Double Slap."

Saur nodded, then ten vines burst from the base of the bud and shot at Charmeleon while Luna kept slapping it back and forth. Charmeleon snarled in irritation and spewed a stream of flames at Luna, who was scorched at first but shrunk to an eight of her size to avoid the attack. Charmeleon opened its jaws to breathe flames once again—

A vine wrapped around its snout and shut its jaws close, muzzling it and preventing it from using a Flamethrower attack. Charmeleon raised its right arm to deliver a Fire Punch only for another vine to wrap around its wrist and bring it behind its back, along with the other arm. Another vine wrapped around its neck, then around its ankles and two squeezing its torso. Charmeleon had been completely immobilized in a matter of seconds.

Hank watched in utter frustration and swore loudly. "C'mon, Charmeleon!" he cried. "Try to break free!"

Ash decided to end this. "Stored Power!"

The wave of thaumaturgic energy exploded in Charmeleon's body and startled Saur into releasing the fire-type, but the battle was over. Charmeleon slumped to the ground, eyes closed in defeat but with a snarl on its face. Saur gave Luna a hard look for surprising him like that, but then grunted in approval. Luna simply hummed and looked at Ash proudly.

"Atta girl," he praised. The Clefairy hummed as she took a moment to bask in her trainer's approval. Saur grunted, mildly irritated for not receiving similar attention, but Ash calmed him down with a wide grin and a thumbs-up.

"Charmeleon has fallen!" Eleanora announced. "Which means that Ash Ketchum will proceed to the semifinals!"

Hank recalled Charmeleon with a sigh, then smiled at Ash one last time before heading out. Ash grinned to himself, then recalled his pokémon and headed to the healing station to get them patched up. Even with a type disadvantage, he'd managed to defeat Hank fairly quickly, and he hoped that his winning streak would continue to the finals of the tournament.

Until tomorrow, he'd just relax.

It _was_ a vacation, after all.

XxXxX

 **A/N: And that marks the end of the first part of the St Anne arc. I'm sorry if the battles were a bit lame or not as exciting as I wanted them to be, but I wanted to get this out quickly (which is actually a pretty bad excuse). Rest assured, the second part of the Arc will (hopefully) be a lot more exciting!**

 **Review responses for chapter five:**

 **The Trainer of Legend:** **Nice chapter. It was nice to see your take on Ritchie and his team. I'm glad Ash didn't get charmander because so many people have done it and it's repetitive. I really like Hydrus, golduck is a very overlooked Pokémon and I'm excited to see what you do with him. Can't wait for St. Anne. Keep up the good work!**

 _-Thank you!_

 **Guest:** **OCs already make a fic really bad, but his team makes it horrible. All of his Pokémon are crap, and most of them aren't even native to Kanto. And Ritchie gets Ash's Charizard? His best and most popular Pokémon? Fucking retarded**

 _-I'm sorry that you feel that way, but it's just that I don't get why people hate OCs so much. Why? If Pokémon made them real, canon characters, would you hate them so much?_

 _As for Ash's team, there is are specific reasons as to why I've chosen them. Bulbasaur is because Ash wants to be the best by imitating his brother from the very start; Mareep is just so that I can make Ash pull off a certain badass combo move; Xatu is… well, I'm not going to say. All I can say is that read its dex entry._

 **Mateusz: Okay, so you have a lot of good things going here, though there are a few aspects that make me wary. I'll go through those first since I don't like ending on a sour note.**

 **The universe of pokemon is huge at this point, with so many characters involved in it that I don't see a point in using OCs unless you absolutely have to. Very few people actually like OCs, no matter the skill with which they're written, and so they tend to drag the story down. I was glad that Ash had departed from Jack and Natalie's company, but then disappointed to see that a good portion of this chapter was dedicated to his experience with some other OCs, albeit ones that are far less friendly. The request for OCs submissions doesn't bode well for the future, either. I enjoy seeing you develop Ash's team or canon characters far more.**

 **I get what you're going for, in that not all of us want to write an anti-social Ash, but I think there are other ways to do that outside of using OCs. Even just writing cities in a more positive light than Traveler-Ash's "get me out of here ASAP" attitude helps, haha.**

 **On a different note, a useful bit of advice, I think, would be to flesh out your descriptions and evoke the five senses. But then again, this is a piece of advice I give to everyone. Traveler and Challenger are a bit dry in terms of writing style, and they've instilled a longing in me to smell the fish reek of the Vermillion harbor, taste the salty wind tugging against Ash's clothes, and so on. I like it when the places Ash travels through are given life on the page, life beyond that given to us by the games or anime.**

 **I am looking forward to seeing what you have planned now that the focus (presumably) has to fall squarely on Ash, without the diversions of Ritchie, Jack, or Natalie. Ash has an interesting team so far - I've always liked the bulbasaur and mareep lines - and you're doing well to make the pokemon feel like characters rather than props. I'm curious what pokemon he'll catch that aren't native to Kanto or Johto.**

 **You're also doing well in terms of pacing - too many writers rush through Ash's journey - which means this fic has the potential to develop nicely. Small incidents now have the capability to be build-up to bigger plot threads later.**

 **Looking forward to seeing what you have planned for the St. Anne arc. It was a defining point for both Traveler and Challenger, so exciting times promise to be ahead.**

 _-Thank you for your review, and thank you for taking your time to dish out some constructive criticism for me! It's reviews like these that really make me think a lot about my stories._

 _I'm glad that you – for want of a better word – like this work of mine. I was originally just going to use Ritchie and Leaf as the beginning trainers, but those two (especially the latter) have been done to death already. I know that introducing OCs is rather risky, since most people tend to dislike them, but I get what you're trying to say._

 _As for the focus falling on only Ash… That probably won't happen for a chapter or three more, although by the time Ash reaches Celadon, the fic will (hopefully) be devoid of distractions. I'm also happy that you liked the choice of pokémon – I always felt that the Bulbasaur line had been undermined because of "cooler" pokémon (Charmander, I'm looking at you), but, as I've said in a previous response, I have specific reasons as to why each member of Ash's team is present in the story. As for pokémon that aren't native to Kanto and Johto, all I can say is that you'll have to wait and see!_

 **Thanks for reading, everybody! Make sure to review and keep the love going.**


	7. Ship Happens, Pt II

_Chapter Seven: Ship Happens, Part II_

So far, the St Anne had been treating them well. Ash wondered whether he would ever be able to recover from the degree of luxury after staying aboard the ship for four days, and currently he despised the wild. Bill was God for him right now, since he was the one who gave Ash the ticket in the first place. He wouldn't be surprised if he wore designer clothes for the rest of his life.

Ash once again found himself on the uppermost deck of the ship, with his team playing in the pool or dozing next to him. Gary was showing Machop how to apply sunscreen on his body while Surge was 'persuading' the DJ to play explicit songs which were definitely not PG 13.

"Gently, Machop, gen— GAAH!" Gary yowled in pain as Machop used a bit _too_ much force while applying sunscreen on his trainer's back. Gary's head jerked upwards and he cringed while Ash roared in laughter.

"It's okay, Machop. Maybe another time," Gary squeaked while caressing his back. Machop looked slightly apologetic, but even the fighting-type looked like he was about to burst out laughing. Machop's was scrunched up as he struggled from giggling and his entire body was shaking with the effort.

Gary gingerly leaned on his pool chair. He looked at Ash with a smirk. "So, Ashy-boy," he drawled. "What pokémon do you think I'm gonna get when I win the tournament, huh?"

Ash simply rolled his eyes at his rival's overconfidence. "Keep dreaming, Gare-Bear," Ash replied. "The only one who's going to win this thing is _me_."

Saur grunted half-heartedly in approval of his trainer's statement. Wartortle growled in response, her face twisting into a glare, ready to prove her rival wrong without a moment's hesitation.

"So how're ya runts doing?" Surge bellowed as he made his way after threatening the DJ into playing his explicit song, which had an unbelievably long string of curse words that Ash would never forget. "Enjoying the ride?"

Gary opened his mouth to respond, but, unfortunately, Surge patted the boy hard right on the spot where Machop had accidentally Karate Chopped him.

Surge frowned. "What's wrong with him, Ketchum?" he asked Ash in puzzlement as Gary went into a series of silent screams while clutching his back. "Looks like he's in labour or something."

Ash snorted and started laughing even harder when Surge said that. Gary simply scowled and glared angrily at the giant.

He felt his stomach rumble and sighed. He was hungry. Ash got up from his seat and yawned for ten solid seconds before stretching his limbs and walking away.

"Hey!" Gary said, causing Ash to stop and look at the spiky-haired boy. "Where're you going?"

"I'm hungry," he explained. "I'm heading to the frozen yoghurt place and getting something for myself." He jabbed his finger in the direction, then turned around and started walking. "I'll be back in some time."

"Get some for me too!" Gary called after him. "The blueberry flavour!"

Ash smirked. "I'll think about it."

He didn't hear Gary say anything, mostly because the Oak knew that Ash would've gotten him one anyway. The frozen yoghurt place was a good distance away from the deck, so it was a good thing that his hunger would grow and make his food taste all the more better.

There was quite a long line, so Ash waited impatiently as the queue kept shortening at a pace that was slower than a Slaking. Ash groaned in happiness when he finally reached the end of the line and pulled out a wad of pokédollars, opening his mouth to articulate his order only to stop when a girl cut into the line in front of him and placed her order.

"Hey!" Ash said. "There's a line here."

The girl whipped around, showing her face for the first time. She was a gorgeous, brown-eyed girl, with lush brown hair and soft skin. She bored down on him a look that was trying to portray his inferiority, but Ash didn't care. He'd faced enough rich people to last a lifetime.

"So what if there's a line here?" Her voice was soft and resonated nobility. It was the type of voice you'd expect from a princess. "Do you know who I am?"

"No I don't," Ash snapped, growing impatient by her obvious arrogance. "Now can you please get to the back of the line? I've been waiting her for over twenty minutes."

The girl gasped, offended. "How _dare_ a commoner like you speak to me that way!" she hissed. "I am Giselle Candling, daughter of Lord and Lady Candling, and I will _not_ tolerate such callous talk from a disgusting little worm like—"

"Hey, can you guys take this argument somewhere else?!" a person in the line exclaimed angrily. "This isn't a battle spot, kids. Get out."

Giselle gasped for a second time. "When my father hears about this—"

"Yeah, yeah, go to your daddy," another person interrupted. "But get out now! We've been waiting for long enough, you hear me?"

Giselle snapped her mouth shut, glaring icily at everyone, especially Ash. "This won't be the last time you hear from me. I will wipe your existence from the face of the cosmos!"

Ash simply rolled his eyes while Giselle stormed away. Why was it always he who bumped into such obnoxious characters?

Fifteen minutes later he'd returned back to the deck, with his mango-flavoured yoghurt and Gary's blueberry-flavoured. Gary immediately shot up from his chair and sent an annoyed glare in Ash's direction. "What took you so long?"

Ash sighed, handing the cup to Gary. "Don't ask."

They ate their yoghurt in silence, then dozed off for quite some time before Ash woke up and decided to do some training. Gary was still asleep, so he didn't bother waking up his rival and simply called for his pokémon, who followed him without questions, albeit with a little reluctance.

"Okay, listen up!" Ash clapped his hands loudly to gain their attention once they were in the training room. "Tonight's going to be some pretty basic stuff. Delphi, keep working on Psychic – try and lift up as much as possible and hold it up until you can't keep going. The rest of you, split up into pairs and do some light sparring with each other and work on improving your moves until I think of something interesting. Got it?"

Each of his pokémon nodded and set off to do their bit of work. Ash set up three targets for Delphi to work on, while Hydrus chose Luna as his sparring partner and Saur chose Zeus. Ash set up three stone targets that all of his pokémon destroyed together to make it easier for Delphi to use her psychic energy. With that, they set off to work.

All of his pokémon had made huge progress. Even, Hydrus, who'd been considered the weakest on his team, could take on Luna on an even footing. He watched as the Psyduck in question formed a Water Pulse, and he felt a spark of pride at how quickly the pulsating sphere of water was created – it had taken Hydrus lots of hard work to really get that down. The Water Pulse shot at Luna, whose both hands glowed with the power of Wake-Up Slap and slammed her palms together to crush the Water Pulse between them. Although the move released a shockwave and drenched Luna, the move was mostly nullified by Luna's surprising strength.

Ash desperately wanted to buy the Sunny Day TM for Saur right now, but decided against it. He didn't want to waste money over it – even though status TMs were fairly cheaper than the rest – and he could always get it when he would win the tournament ( _when_ , not _if_ ). In the meantime, he needed Saur to work on his endurance and speed when he was not under the influence of Chlorophyll.

Ash walked over Delphi, who was activating her huge reservoirs of psychic potential to levitate small chunks of rock from the destroyed targets in the air around her. He noticed a definite strain when she added another piece of stone, this one much larger, to her exercise. There was a limit to how much of her psychic energy she could tap into right now, but Ash figured that with practice she would get it. He also thought of buying a permanent copy of the Psychic TM when he'd win the tournament so that he could use it on not only Delphi but also on Luna.

But now, Ash had more pressing matters on hand. He'd just realised that the quarterfinals required trainers to use three pokémon each and the six pokémon for the finals.

Ash had only five on his roster.

How the heck was he going to duke it out in the finals with one pokémon less? He often dreamed that he'd win with only his five teammates, but that seemed highly unlikely. He wasn't a Master yet. He was simply a rookie trainer from one of the smallest towns in Kanto!

Ash frowned, panic taking over him. He really should've thought this out. He needed to capture some new pokémon for his team.

He shook his head. Right now he just needed to focus on winning the semifinal round. He could worry about it when he'd proceed to the last round.

As they continued training, Ash took out his pokédex to run through what he wanted to teach his team while they were on the ship. There was a lot to do, especially if he wanted to win the tournament and receive the grand prize. He first went through all the moves each of his teammates knew, which wasn't hard because he'd memorised their entire move set, because he didn't want to depend on his pokédex to call out moves during a battle.

Saur knew Vine Whip, Take Down, Poison/Sleep/Stun Powder/Spore, Razor Leaf, Sweet Scent, Leech Seed, Energy Ball as well as the inherited moves Leaf Storm, Magical Leaf and Power Whip. The Ivysaur would continue working on Power Whip and Magical Leaf, but Ash also had plans to start on Leaf Storm. Saur had also started practicing Double Edge and Synthesis; the former, which was a more terrible form of Take Down, was relatively simpler than the latter, which involved a much faster rate of photosynthesis. Saur was having trouble converting so much water vapour and carbon dioxide at such a fast rate to produce nourishment for his form, but he'd get it down in a few days. Synthesis wasn't a particularly hard move to learn.

Zeus' moves were Thunderbolt, Charge Beam, Thundershock, Thunder Wave, Cotton Spore, Charge, Take Down, Confuse Ray and Iron Tail. He was quite well-balanced since he could both immobilize and attack from up-close and at a distance. Ash also wanted him to learn Power Gem, but, since neither of them knew where to start, he held that thought for a moment.

Luna's move set consisted of Disarming Voice, Wake-Up Slap, Sing, Defence Curl, Magical Leaf, Aromatherapy, Pound and Double Slap, Cosmic Power, Minimize, and Stored Power. The Clefairy had mostly physical moves on her arsenal, something Ash wanted to change since Clefable weren't known for being physical fighters. The plan for buying that Psychic TM, along with Sunny Day, was fixed in his mind and nothing was going to change that.

Delphi knew Teleport, Stored Power, Confuse Ray, Ominous Wind, Drill Peck, Night Shade, Shadow Ball, and Psychic (which was still work in progress). Ash stifled a groan when he realised that his friend barely had any moves to either boost her strength or defend herself. Teleport was the only viable option for defence, but he didn't want her to rely on it since teleportation depleted the psychic reservoirs fairly quickly, and if he needed it as a method of transportation he needed to purchase the Teleport TM, which simply gave a significant boost and eased the teleportation process for pokémon.

In any case, he decided to scratch his plans of teaching her another offensive move and latched onto the concept of enhancement and defence.

Last but not least was Hydrus, whose move pool was made up of Scald, Water Gun, Water Sport, Hypnosis, Psybeam, Confuse Ray, Confusion, Scratch, Disable and the newly-learnt Water Pulse. The problem with Hydrus was that the Psyduck was unable to use any of his psychic moves – like Confusion, Psybeam, or Confuse Ray and even Disable – unless he was having one of his random psychic bursts. So far Ash hadn't seen it ever occur on the St Anne, so Hydrus was handicapped unless he had a migraine building up. The pokédex had made it sound like they had it every now and then, but it was only when they were under real stress that a Psyduck would unleash its psychic powers.

In the meantime he just wanted his friend to grow stronger and get closer to evolving. Once he'd evolve into a Golduck, Hydrus would have absolutely no trouble accessing his inner psychic potential and he'd become a force to be reckoned with. Ash also had plans for teaching his dopey friend Ice Beam, which would give him an upper hand against grass- and flying-type pokémon.

His eyes trailing over each member of his team, only one thought rang in his mind:

His friends would win.

XxXxX

Ash made his way onto the field as Eleanora called his and his opponent's names as the first set of trainers to compete in the semifinals. Ash ran through what he knew about his opponent as they locked eyes, which wasn't much other than the fact that he'd steamrolled his way through the tournament with ease.

Matt Dear was a twelve-year-old kid with short, copper hair swept to the side, kind of like an emo trainer Ash had bumped into a while ago. His name didn't make him sound threatening, but his impressive height and icy-blue eyes certainly made him imposing. His attire consisted a simple shirt and Bermuda shorts, along with a pair of casual sneakers.

But what really threatened him was Matt's choice of pokémon. So far Ash had seen him use only one pokémon – a Chansey, which echoed a kind of raw fury its species wasn't known for. It practically reeked aggressiveness, and for such a creature to be so angry something must've affected it terribly in the past.

In any case, Chansey had curb-stomped each and every opponent it faced, not with its strength (which wasn't much) but its incredible durability and ability to regenerate itself in a matter of moments. He seriously needed play his cards properly if he wanted to proceed to the finals of the tournament.

Matt Dear allowed a curt nod, but Ash didn't respond in any way. He didn't want to get caught up being friends with Matt during the battle and forget his priorities.

"Trainers, release your pokémon!" the referee ordered.

Matt made the first move and, as expected, his first choice was his Chansey. The pink, ovoid creature blinked as it registered to its surroundings, then the eyes narrowed so close that Ash recoiled slightly. The six, hair-like growths on the sides of its head twitched and the creature flexed its short arms the best it could. It scowled so fiercely that it almost managed to look intimidating.

He wasn't very threatened, since Chansey had terrible attack and defences and several good and well placed hits would be enough to take it down. The only problem was that it was made to heal itself in a matter of seconds before retaliating with powerful moves like Double Edge.

Ash quickly ran over his team as he thought of who to choose against this monster of a Chansey. None of his pokémon were used to facing such a tank and it would probably take two of them to bring it down.

In the end he decided on Luna. He was banking on the combo of Sing and Wake-Up Slap, which would inflict devastating damage on Chansey if it took a hit. He unclipped the Clefairy's pokeball and tapped the release button, sending her out with a flash of white energy.

"Trainers, you know the rules!" Surge bellowed through his mic. "No time limit, no substitutions, and no crying if you lose! That last comment goes to Dear, alright?!"

Neither trainer responded to the giant.

The referee tensed, looking from Ash to Matt, then he slashed his hand down in an instant. "Begin!"

"Double Edge!" Matt said, not missing a beat.

"Minimize!" commanded Ash.

Luna shrunk just as Chansey barrelled at her, shooting over the minimized Clefairy and crashing into the ground, but Chansey easily shrug off the recoil and stood back up while Luna grew back into her original size.

"Water Pulse!"

Ash watched as Chansey formed a sphere of water between its stubby hands, although with some difficulty. He decided that it wasn't used to manipulating water – and how the heck had it learnt it anyway? – and called an order as Chansey launched it at Luna with impressive speed.

"Wake-Up Slap," Ash said quickly, remembering her sparring match with Hydrus from earlier. "Crush it!"

Luna's open fists glowed as she spread her arms out and slammed her palms together to crush the sphere of water, generating a small shockwave and drenching her but nullifying the attack. The Clefairy glared at Chansey, unfazed even as water dripped slowly from her face.

Matt scowled. "Fine, then use Pound!"

"Defence Curl/Cosmic Power combo!" Ash yelled quickly.

Luna nodded, then curled her body into a ball the best she could, glowing white and pink for a few seconds while Chansey headed towards her with a raised fist. Luna didn't show any signs of pain as Chansey pummelled her body with its stubby hands and kept continuing when the Clefairy didn't react.

Ash chewed his lip nervously as Chansey pounded his Clefairy with its tail, thinking of a counterattack. While it would take a while for Chansey to break through Luna's defences (which were increasing by every passing second) he didn't want her to take a beating just to wear her opponent out. "Stored Power!"

The Clefairy didn't react immediately, but a second later, Chansey's ovoid form was blasted away as a wave of raw, psychic energy emanated from Luna's body in the form of a thick, blue ray. Ash was mildly stunned by the way Luna had used Stored Power – since when did she use it like that?

Chansey grunted as it rolled harshly on the field before coming to a halt. The hair-like growths on the sides of its head twitched as it pushed itself off the ground, scowling fiercer than ever. A ghost of a smirk flashed across Matt's face, making Ash wary. "Softboiled."

His eyes widened as Chansey screwed its eyes shut in concentration, the egg in its pouch glowing brightly. Softboiled was a very uncommon move – since only the Chansey line could learn it naturally – and it was quite similar to Recover. Matt had used this specific move to let his Chansey regenerate and tank hits. In no time, Chansey would be fully healed of its injuries if Ash didn't stop it.

He made a decision once the healing energy began to flow over Chansey. "Luna, Wake-Up Slap on the egg, full power!" he shouted. "Destroy it!"

As Luna darted at Chansey with a glowing fist, Matt scowled and opened his mouth to call for a command. "Dodge!"

He felt a little guilty for wanting to destroy a Chansey's egg, but it wasn't like it would be fatal. It would, at most, take a day for the Chansey to regrow its egg on its own and only a couple of hours if it was taken to a Pokémon Centre.

In any case, Chansey was too slow to move during the process of healing itself, and Luna successfully slammed the glowing egg with her tiny fist at full force. A web of cracks spread from the point of impact and Chansey shrieked as its heavy body was flung away.

Ash grinned – Chansey wouldn't be able to use Softboiled during the battle anymore, and now he wasn't as worried as he was at the beginning of the match. He had a larger chance at winning and he was going to make full use of it. "Sing!" he commanded. "Then finish it off with Pound and Double Wake-Up Slap!"

"Goddammit!" Matt cursed, stamping his foot as Chansey struggled to push itself up. "Get up, Chansey!"

Luna murmured a centralised lullaby in Chansey's direction, lulling the egg pokémon into sleep. Luna wound her arm back and charged at Chansey as her fists began to glow white with the intention of pummelling it to the point where victory would be hers.

The Clefairy slammed her fists into Chansey, whose eyes snapped open briefly in surprise and pain as the _incredible_ damage of Wake-Up Slap took its toll over it. Chansey's eyes rolled into the back of its head, showing only the whites as it fell to the ground, out cold.

Matt groaned, but recalled his fallen Chansey. Ash grinned even wider as he saw the palpable fear on his opponent's face. "Good girl, Luna."

Luna looked back and smiled cutely and trilled at her trainer's words of praise.

"And Chansey is down!" Eleanora announced. "The very pokémon that haunts the nightmares of dozen pokémon that took part in this tournament has fallen by a very ingenious plot by Ash and his surprisingly powerful Clefairy! What other surprises does Matt Dear have with him?!"

"Heatmor, let's go!" Matt tossed a pokeball, releasing a large, red and brown bipedal onto the field – it looked somewhat like an anteater. A tongue of flame slithered out of its thin mouth, tasting the air. It flexed its large, golden claws as another tongue of flame shot out of its mouth and disappeared as quickly as it came.

From its appearance, 'Heatmor' appeared to be a fire-type pokémon. It didn't look intimidating, but he'd been proven wrong before – Matt's Chansey was loving proof. Ash watched curiously as Heatmor spewed another, thin stream of flame that bounced against the dirt field and back into the creature's mouth.

Once again, Matt took the first move. "Incinerate!"

"Stored Power!" Ash said.

Heatmor spat a gout of flame, which met the wave of stored, psychic energy from Luna and resulted in a explosion mid-air, causing a cloud of smoke to cover up the field. Ash tensed as Matt and Heatmor disappeared behind the black haze. "Be careful, Luna. Get read—"

The Clefairy was silent as they waited for their foe to appear. All was quiet for a mo—

A thick tongue of fire tore through the smoke and slashed Luna across the body. The Clefairy screamed as the flames scorched her skin, then squealed as the strand of flames lashed her pink body a few more times for good measure. As Luna tried to recover on the ground, Ash saw Heatmor advancing menacingly, flicking a whip of fire from his orifice like a circus tamer.

"Fire Bind!" Matt shouted.

Ash opened his mouth to scream an order just as the whip of fire shot at the Clefairy, first slashing her and then binding her body with it. Ash watched in full of horror and awe as Heatmor lifted Luna into the air (although it looked strained by the effort) with the tongue of fire, then squeezed her body harshly before slamming the Clefairy to the ground.

Ash didn't even need to see her to know that she was unconscious. He lifted the pokeball and recalled her limp form, smiling at the device for a moment. "You did a great job, girl. Rest up now."

Ash considered who to chose against Heatmor. It was certainly a powerful pokémon, and he also wanted to know how Heatmor was able to manipulate the fire to become something like a fiery vine, but he could save that for another time. Right now he had to focus.

He considered Heatmor for a moment. It hadn't taken a hit at all, but it looked a bit tired from the effort of 'Fire Bind', or whatever the heck that move was. He didn't want to take the easy way out by sending Hydrus, but he needed to proceed to the finals at all cost. All thoughts of being fair went out of his mind right now.

His second, Hydrus, appeared on the battlefield. The Psyduck quacked once and liked at and cocked his head curiously at Heatmor, who tasted the air with a tongue of flame once again.

"Water Sport!" Ash said quickly before Matt could give an order. He wanted Hydrus to take as little damage as possible from Heatmor's fire-type attacks before going onto Matt's third. The Psyduck nodded, his body glowing blue for a moment as he soaked himself in water.

"Like that's going to make a difference," Matt scoffed. "Fire Lash!"

Heatmor reared back, then snapped his head down as a tongue of fire whipped in Hydrus' direction at lightning speed. The Psyduck jumped to the side but the Fire Lash caught him in his shoulder, although it didn't hurt him much – most of the fire sizzled out when it came in contact with his soaked skin.

"Water Pulse!" Ash said. "Then Water Gun."

"Flame Burst and Thunder Punch into the Water Gun!"

The Water Pulse easily drenched the Flame Burst, and although its effect was dampened it doused Heatmor, eliciting a hiss of annoyance as its inner flame was dampened. Heatmor tasted the air with its fire once again before throwing an electrified fist straight into the blast of water that slammed into its face.

The electricity travelled up the jet of water and got a hit into Hydrus, who quacked in protest as he was mildly shocked. The Psyduck's right eye twitched for a second and he placed his hand on his head. Ash grinned nervously; if his assumption was right, Hydrus was getting closer to a random burst of psychic energy.

Matt didn't notice that and calmly called another order. "Flamethrower," he said. "Then Fire Lash!"

"Scald!" Ash yelled.

Psyduck shook his head a bit, his eyes screwed shut in pain from the migraine building up in his head. Ash winced as the Flamethrower and Fire Lash sent him airborne, landing on the ground headfirst with a painful thud. Ash clenched his fist, but smirked a bit when Psyduck got back up and Matt's eyes widened when the dopey creature gained a blue aura around his body.

Hydrus was about to run riot.

"Thunder Punch!" Matt cried frantically.

Ash wasn't going to have it. "Confusion!" he yelled urgently.

Heatmor lunged at the Psyduck with an electrified fist, but before it could reach him, the yellow duck's eyes glowed a menacing blue. Heatmor was stopped in its tracks as Hydrus raised a stubby arm, causing the fire-type to be enveloped in blue energy and let out a startling cry as it was lifted in the air by his psychic powers.

"Shit!" Matt cursed.

"Slam it down!" Ash said.

Hydrus quacked loudly and swiped his stubby arm down, causing Heatmor to be launched towards the field at frightening speed. The fiery anteater grunted as its body crashed into the ground. While the actual slam wouldn't have done serious damage, being in touch with psychic energy hurt them mentally.

"Psybeam!"

The Psyduck nodded determinedly in acknowledgement of his trainer's order, then raised his arms a multi-coloured beam of psychic energy was unleashed at Heatmor through his eyes. The anteater pokémon responded by exhaling a stream of flames that was aimed to meet the Psybeam mid-flight, triggering an explosion, but even then some of the psychic energy managed to tear through the Flamethrower and blast Heatmor away.

"F-Fire Lash!" Matt stuttered. Heatmor pushed itself up and another whip of scarlet flames shot out of its orifice, even though the fire-type's chest was rising and falling with its harsh breaths.

"Disable!" Ash said.

Hydrus twitched a clawed finger and suddenly Heatmor's entire form was enveloped in a thin layer of red energy, causing its body to freeze. The only drawback was that the rope of fire struck the Psyduck across the body, eliciting a loud quack of pain and causing him to snap out of his psychic stupor as he tried to escape the heat of the flames.

Ash cursed as Hydrus' eyes turned back to normal and he stared dumbly at Heatmor for a second, as though he didn't recognize it at all. His brief migraine had come and gone and now he could rely on his psychic moves.

"Water Pulse," Ash said slowly.

Heatmor grunted, then slammed his fist into the sphere of water that exploded as soon as it came into contact. Heatmor hissed in pain and protest as the Water Pulse completely drenched it and blew it away due to the pulse of energy it carried, and the creature tumbled into the ground before being sprayed by a highly pressurized blast of boiling water from Hydrus. Heatmor didn't even manage to hiss again as it was instantly knocked out by the impact. Hydrus stared at Heatmor's unconscious form for a few seconds, then whipped around and quacked excitedly at Ash, as if the Psyduck had discovered something interesting.

Ash sighed in relief. That had been close – if it hadn't been for Hydrus' powerful migraine, he would've lost all hope of winning the match. Still, he decided not to rely a lot on his Psyduck's ability to use psychic moves and made a note to teach his friend some more moves.

Matt unclipped a third pokeball and tapped the release, sending a skunk-like pokémon with dark purple fur and a stripe of cream coloured fur running along its back. Ash recoiled slightly as the creature raised its furry tail, expelling a mild odour that reminded him of a Muk.

"Hey," he called across the field to get his opponent's attention. "Do you mind telling me what kind of pokémon that is?"

Matt smiled just the slightest. "They're called Stunky," the older trainer answered. "They're poison-types native to Sinnoh, but they also have dark-type attributes."

Ash nodded in acknowledgement. Stunky didn't look threatening – in fact, its face looked like a butt – but if it was a poison- and a dark-type Ash figured it might have a lot of tricks up its sleeves.

"In any case, let us continue," Matt said. "We can discuss later."

Ash shrugged. "Sounds good to me. Hydrus, use Water Pulse!"

The Psyduck did as instructed a bit faster this time and hurled the pulsating sphere of water at Stunky with a burst of energy. The poison/dark-type instinctively tensed its body, conjuring a green shield in front of it that protected it from the Water Pulse, although Hydrus' attack still managed to repel it a bit.

Ash didn't miss a beat. "Scratch!"

"Poison Gas," said Matt calmly.

 _Crud_. "Dodge!"

But that didn't happen – Hydrus was too slow to suddenly change his action and quickly raked Stunky across the face, causing the poison-type to wince, but it managed to release a putrid, purple stream of toxic vapours from its rear end. Hydrus quacked in protest as the noxious fumes entered his sinus cavity and pumped debilitating poison into his bloodstream.

Ash scowled as Hydrus' body glowed purple and shook as the poison took effect. While Poison Gas wasn't as potent as Toxic, it still gradually wore the opponent down, which meant that Ash and Hydrus were on a time limit and it would only be moments before his Psyduck would succumb to hits from Stunky and the gradual decrease in health due to the poison.

"We've got to finish this fast, Hydrus!" Ash shouted. The duck nodded and winced as Poison Gas surged through his body once again. Ash knew they didn't have much time, so he tried out a move that he didn't really want to rely on, but desperate times called for desperate measures. "Confuse Ray!"

Hydrus quacked slowly, then raised his left arm as his eyes glowed red, releasing a thin beam of eerie crimson at Stunky. Matt, however, wasn't about to let him get away with confusing his pokémon.

"Stunky, Acid Spray!"

The Confuse Ray was made harmless to Stunky as a glob of purple poison tore straight through the beam of spectral energy and splash on Hydrus, causing the Psyduck to quack in pain as the poison sizzled on his body, which glowed purple under the effects of Poison Gas once again. However, Ash wasn't going to give up so easily. "Scald!"

Stunky screeched as a blast of steaming water struck its flank, tipping it over. The poison-type quickly got back up, but not before Ash called out another command and Hydrus carried it out with surprising quickness. "Confuse Ray!"

This time there was no escaping the ghost-type move. The spectral light of red washed over Stunky, who shuddered as its mind was twisted by whatever alien powers Psyduck had emitted, much to Ash's pleasure. It was now vulnerable and would be an easier target for Hydrus now that its brains were scrambled by the strange move.

Matt nervously chewed his nails. "Snap out of it!"

Instead, Stunky let out a furious growl and opened its maw, firing a beam of black and purple energy at Hydrus, who reflexively produced a Water Gun that met Stunky's attack mid-flight, although it was nowhere near as powerful as the Dark Pulse. The beam of negative energy easily outmatched Hydrus' comparatively pitiful Water Gun and struck the Psyduck square on its torso.

That was it – the Dark Pulse was enough to knock him out and Ash recalled his fallen friend as he went airborne. Despite his slowness he'd managed to take down Heatmor and incapacitate Stunky momentarily. Ash smiled at the pokeball and reattached it to his belt before detaching his third and final pokéball.

Saur appeared with a hiss and a growl and the Ivysaur extracted two vines from the base of the bud on his back. He made another growl this time, much louder, and Stunky locked onto the sound instantly, snarling even more ferociously, its mind addled.

"Vine Whip," he said.

Saur growled but nodded, his two vines shooting at Stunky with sudden speed and hammering the confused poison/dark-type until it spat a blob of acid at the two appendages. Saur winced slightly as the poison burnt his vines, which were quickly retracted and replaced by another set, ready to go.

Stunky let another furious snarl before unleashing a particularly powerful Dark Pulse that ripped through the air, and the saurian actually yelped as the beam of negative energy missed him by mere inches. Stunky hissed at imaginary foes, whirling in its spot and firing Dark Pulses at random while the Ivysaur looked for an opening.

Stunky's tail flicked as it farted a Poison Gas – yuck – that quickly diffused into the air and streamed towards Saur, who seemed unaffected. With his poison typing, most poison-type moves would do little damage and any Poison Gas would be similar to a Sweet Scent to him.

"Energy Ball, then Vine Whip!" Saur grunted, opening his fanged maw to generate a sphere of solar energy before firing it at Stunky with a quick burst of power. The skunk pokémon hissed as the Energy Ball exploded into its right side, tipping it over. Saur quickly smacked his opponent with his tentacles, eliciting another hiss of pain and annoyance as Stunky furiously began to slash at random.

Ash frowned. He needed to end this before Stunky's confused state would wear off, and Saur's grass-type moves weren't helping a lot. "Spore Burst!"

A huge cloud of spores was expelled from the bud on Saur's back. The spores quickly floated towards Stunky, who was still slashing at the air, and the skunk suddenly hissed as the spores settled on its body, inducing paralysis. Its body twitched, muscles contracting for long, painful seconds before returning as quick as it came.

He decided to kick things up a notch. "Leech Seed!"

The Ivysaur fired a battery of green, glowing seeds at Stunky, who suddenly incinerated them with a fast Dark Pulse before the parasitic pellets even reached their peak. Ash frowned as Stunky suddenly began darting around the field in befuddlement, but called for Saur to continue with Leech Seed until the strength-sapping move hit his opponent.

Only one Leech Seed hit Stunky in the end, and that was just because it had tripped from its own random movements. Stunky yelped as the glowing pellet exploded into a net of vines that wrapped around its victim and immediately began sapping energy from it.

"Take Down."

Saur pawed at the ground before charging at the confused Stunky, putting all his weight and strength into the crash he was preparing for. Matt looked pretty worried and stomped his foot in frustration. "Explosion!"

Ash's eyes widened in horror when Stunky surprisingly listened to its trainer's order and began to glow with energy. The dust around it began to levitate in streams as Stunky began to prepare its explosion and Saur was just two meters away—

A flare of heat and light signalled the execution of Explosion, followed by a concussive blast that demolished the battlefield. The psychic barriers at the side flared and flickered, but settled down a moment later.

Stunky was predictably down. Saur was somehow still on his feet, but his short legs were trembling from the effort of keeping his bulky body standing and his eyelids were flitting every few seconds.

The referee waited for a few seconds to see if Saur was still conscious, then raised his arm in Ash's direction. "Stunky is unable to battle! Ivysaur wins!"

Ash sighed in relief and quickly recalled Saur – he wasn't cruel enough to keep the nearly-unconscious Ivysaur out any longer. "And Ketchum wins thanks to his amazing team!" Eleanora announced. "And therefore the winner of this match – and tonight's finalist, ladies and gentlemen – is Ash Ketchum! Let's give him a round of applause!"

He smiled and waved at the crowd, which kept chanting his name for a solid twenty seconds before dying down, thanks to Surge's numerous threats and curses over the mic. Ash walked over to the seats reserved for participants, where Gary was preparing himself for the last battle of the semifinals. His rival smirked and casually thumped him on the shoulder. "Nice work out there, Ashy-boy," he drawled. "Looks like we'll be facing off against each other in the finals, yeah?"

"You've got to win first, Gary," Ash retorted. "You still have to learn that, though."

"...Smartass."

He grinned, but nevertheless wished his rival luck as the spiky-haired boy made his way onto the field as Eleanora announced his and his opponent's names as the last trainers to compete in the semifinals. Gary flipped his hair and smirked arrogantly at his opponent, a girl who Ash recognized immediately.

It was Giselle Candling, whom he'd encountered at the frozen yoghurt parlour. She looked exceptionally haughty and straightened further while leering at Gary.

"Let's give it up for Gary Oak and Giselle Candling!" Eleanora said, eliciting a roar from the crowd. "Trainers, release your pokémon!"

"I'm winning this one, girlie!" Gary sneered, tossing a pokeball into the air. "Drowzee – you're up!" he declared as the calm psychic-type burst onto the field. Drowzee swayed, emitting a croon as she raised her clawed hands into the air, ready to battle.

Giselle folded her arms and blew a raspberry at Gary. "I think I need to knock you commoners down a peg and show you all your places. My pokémon are bought from the best breeders in the region! You can't possibly defeat them!"

With a smirk and a flourish, she threw a black capture device – a luxury-ball – out onto the field, where it released a Graveler. The rock-type smashed its four fists together and glared at Drowzee, obviously ready for a fight. Drowzee seemed unperturbed by her opponent's eagerness to battle and simply swayed, although she did tense up a second later.

The referee glanced between them. "Remember, it's a three-on-three battle! The first move goes to Oak!" When the two trainers nodded, he slashed his hand down, commencing the battle. "Begin!"

"Shadow Ball," Gary said, getting right into the match.

Drowzee crooned and waved her arms, collecting shadowy energy into a blob and hurling it at Graveler with speed. The stone beast leered back with beady eyes as Giselle calmly gave her own orders. "Rock Tomb."

Graveler slammed its four fists into the ground, triggering rocks to erupt upwards and encase it in a protective ring. The Shadow Ball exploded against the rocks, which shuddered slightly and cracked a bit, though it didn't penetrate.

"Rock Smash!"

Ash watched as chunks of stone went flying as Graveler's strong fists obliterated its own shield. Graveler grunted, raised its fists and smashed the remaining chunks of the Rock Tomb at Drowzee, who was in sudden danger of being pelted by the rocks.

The heavy-lidded psychic-type's eyes flashed as the stones shot at her with frightening speed. Drowzee leapt to the right, narrowly missing a particularly large piece of the Rock Tomb, then swiftly destroyed another heading her way with a nasty Shadow Ball. Several of the stones littered the ground; a few managed to pelt Drowzee, and although they wouldn't hurt much no one liked being hit by rocks, however insignificant they were.

"Confusion!" Gary commanded.

Giselle snapped her fingers. "Rock Polish, then dodge."

Drowzee raised a claw and emanated a weak, telekinetic wave at Graveler, whose body glowed brightly as the psychic attack shot at it, and the rock-type easily rolled out of the way, a lot faster than before. "Psybeam!" called Gary, and Drowzee took aim at Graveler, who kept rolling around the field with increased speed, before sniping the rock beast with an accurately aimed Psybeam that sent it grunting.

"Hard Roll!" Giselle ordered.

Graveler grunted as it curled its body into a large ball of stone and then glowed white for a few seconds before slipping into a roll at Drowzee. Ash recognized it as a combination of Harden, Defence Curl and Rollout – Harden and Defence Curl would toughen its body and make Rollout hit harder while also increase its own defences in the process.

"Dodge it, then blast it with Psybeam and Shadow Ball when you're far away!" Gary instructed his pokémon.

Drowzee nodded, rushing to her right to outmanoeuvre her opponent, who made a slow turn in her direction when it rolled right past her. Drowzee released a multi-coloured beam of energy via her trunk, followed by a sphere of ectoplasmic energy that was unleashed on its rolling form, but the hypnosis pokémon did little more than slow it down and annoy it – its defences were just too high at the moment for her to penetrate it.

Giselle groaned as Drowzee kept dodging her pokémon, which was apparently slow even after Rock Polish. "Tomb Burst!" she snapped.

Graveler uncurled and slowed to a halt a few seconds later before slamming its four fists into the ground, and a ring of rocks erupted and surrounded Drowzee in an instant. The psychic-type let out a muffled groan as it was encased in the rocks, and though Gary was frantically calling for her to destroy her prison with her moves, the Rock Tomb was just too strong.

While all this was happening, Graveler slammed the ground once again and a concentrated tremor shot at Drowzee and her prison in the form of a thick crack. A second later, Drowzee let out a pained cry and the rocks around it absolutely shattered as the ground below her exploded with golden power. Giselle looked triumphant as Drowzee was sent airborne and called for the deciding move.

"Mega Punch."

Ash winced as Graveler drove a glowing fist straight into Drowzee's midsection when she fell to the ground. The psychic-type's eyes bugged out in pain and she moaned loudly as Graveler threw another Mega Punch, this time hitting her in the face. When the stone creature slowly pulled its arm back, Drowzee was unconscious.

Gary recalled Drowzee without a word and clipped her pokeball to his belt, but his arrogant smirk didn't fade. "To tell ya the truth, I'm not surprised. Drowzee still needs to do some work so I didn't expect her to win in the first place. But let's see if you can win against this! Go, Machop!"

The little fighting-type flexed his muscles for a brief moment when he was sent out and then crossed his arms, staring at Graveler with an impassive look. He was one of Gary's more serious pokémon and Ash knew that Machop was well trained.

"Machop, let's do this, alright!" The fighting-type nodded and grunted at his trainer's words. "Start off with Focus Chop!"

Machop's fists straightened and glowed with orange energy before he closed his eyes and focused all his power into those parts. Giselle watched her opponent's pokémon as he strengthened the power in his hands and then Machop's scarlet eyes snapped open before he broke into a quick charge at Graveler. "Defence Curl!" she said.

Graveler curled his stone body as Machop swung his two hands at it with all his might. The rock-type grunted in pain as the sides of Machop's palms struck its hide, but it had lessened the pain due to Defence Curl.

"Rock Smash!" Giselle called.

Gary grinned. "Protect!"

Machop raised his arms and enveloped himself in a sphere of green energy. Graveler slammed its fists full-force into the emerald barrier, grunting with surprise and brief pain from the sudden jolt it received. With it momentarily stunned, Gary called for another order. "Low Kick, then Karate Chop!"

Machop dropped to the ground, swung his leg at Graveler's feet and knocked the rock-type down with a thud. Giselle looked impassively as her pokémon groaned in pain from two powerful downward swings Machop had delivered in quick succession. Graveler instinctively smashed the ground with a fist, causing a blade of stone to punch out of the field. Machop cried out in protest as the Stone Edge caught him clean in the stomach and launched him back to Gary's side of the field with a groan of pain as the fighting-type landed roughly.

Machop wasn't terribly hurt, but he was still wincing a bit as he pushed himself up using his superhuman strength and brushed off the rubble and dust off his shoulders. Machop cracked his neck and curled his fists as he got into the fighting stance, still having a lot of fuel left in his tank.

"Okay, Machop!" Gary grinned. "You got this. Bulk Up!"

"Don't let it do it!" Giselle told her pokémon. "Hard Roll!"

Gary watched warily as Graveler curled into a ball of stone and began bowling towards Machop. "Take it..." he said in a whisper.

Machop's tail flicked to acknowledge his trainer and tensed his muscles, his body gaining a faint, orange outline as natural hormones were pumped in his body to make his muscles swell and become hard to make his body tougher. The fighting-type braced himself and dug his feet into the ground as Graveler barrelled into him, sending him airborne from the violent impact. Machop landed harshly on the ground but managed to push himself up, flexing his arms.

Gary's face split into a feral grin. "Revenge!"

Ash's eyes widened in surprise as Machop let loose a guttural howl, an orange-red aura blazing to life around his reptilian form. Giselle looked positively worried and Graveler made a choked sound in surprise.

"Graveler, Harden!"

Machop crouched, then sprung at Graveler with his powerful legs while swinging his arms wildly. The rock-type immediately curled up and braced his entire body, too slow to dodge the powerful move. Machop barrelled straight into his opponent with such force that Graveler was knocked back to Giselle's side of the field, where it hit the psychic barriers and fell to the ground.

"Tomb Burst!" Giselle called.

A circle or rocks burst out of the field, surrounding Machop's form in an instant, but Gary wasn't deterred. "Protect!"

The Rock Tomb surrounding Gary's pokémon was pulverised as the ground below it exploded with raw power, but Machop didn't seem hurt at all – the fighting-type was casually protected in a green orb, which faded a moment after the Rock Tomb/Earth Power mixture. "Bulk Up!" said Gary, and Machop's body tensed up once again as he pumped hormones into his muscles to not only increase his strength but also toughen his body.

"Karate Chop!"

"Hard Roll!"

The two pokémon advanced at each other, putting all their strength into their attacks. There was a tremendous impact, and then both Machop and Graveler were on the ground in a cloud of debris. The field was silent for a few seconds as Gary and Giselle glared at one another until Machop used his superhuman strength and pushed himself up, flexing his arms and jabbing chopping at the air in an attempt to brush off the pain. He was dazed and hurt, but not defeated.

"And Graveler is down!" Surge barked. "Looks like the Greenhead's been training his pokémon well, eh?"

Ash snorted and Gary scowled at Surge's jab, although the spiky-haired boy didn't seem annoyed. He flashed a smile at Machop, who dipped his head at his trainer before focusing once again on Giselle, who had already recalled her pokémon and was exchanging the luxury-ball for a pure white pokeball – a premier-ball.

The premier-ball snapped open, sending forth a pokémon Ash had only seen once before. Its true form was obscured by countless thick, blue-green vines. Two curious eyes peeked out from beneath the shadows created by the writhing tentacles and blinked at Machop. Red, boot-like feet popped from under the mass of vines, keeping the creature steadily on the ground.

Ash immediately recognised it as a Tangela. They were odd, friendly pokémon that could never be forgotten due to their slow and curious nature. The only time Ash had seen them was when a classmate had brought one to school for show-and-tell.

"Okay, Machop, let's win a second time!" Gary said. "Karate Chop!"

"Sludge Bomb!" Giselle snapped.

Tangela spat a glob of toxic goo at Machop, who unfortunately ran straight into it and cringed in pain as the Sludge Bomb struck his body. The superpower pokémon cried out in distress and staggered, but broke into a run once again to deliver a Karate Chop.

"Constrict!" Giselle said.

Machop swung wildly at Tangela, but a bunch of vines shot from the grass-type and immediately began wrapping around Machop's wrists, ankles, waist and neck and immediately began squeezing the fighting-type with all its strength. Tangela looked merely curious and raised Machop in the air, where he struggled to break free from its grip, managing to free an arm and a leg but four more vines took their place and restrained him further. Giselle pounced on the chance in an instant. "Mega Drain, then slam it down!"

Ash watched as Tangela's vines which were holding Machop in the air glowed a bright green. The superpower pokémon groaned and writhed as his health and strength was gradually sapped away from his body, and Tangela happily and readily absorbed the stolen energy.

Then, after what seemed like eternity, Tangela brought Machop down to the ground with alarming speed and slammed Gary's pokémon with such force that the ground beneath him cratered. Machop groaned and tried to push himself up, but Tangela quickly smacked him with a vine, and this time he did not rise.

"Turnaround!" Eleanora said. "Candling manages to defeat Machop with ease and now Oak is down to his last pokémon!"

Gary recalled Machop with a frown on his face. On the side-lines, Ash was nervously chewing his lip as he watched Tangela curiously explore the field with its vines. He didn't know where Giselle must've gotten such a pokémon, since Tangela were pretty rare in Kanto and were only available on designated islands to the south of Pallet Town. The only other option was that Giselle must have had access to a really expensive breeder to gain a pokémon such as Tangela.

Pidgeotto was Gary's third and final choice. Ash had been half-expecting his rival to choose Wartortle, but that would've been a risky move. Even though Wartortle was undoubtedly Gary's strongest pokémon, Giselle and Tangela could easily take the turtle out by using a continuous barrage of Constrict and Mega Drain. Pidgeotto would be a harder target to hit since he could easily manoeuvre through the sky and sever Tangela's vines with ease.

Pidgeotto shrieked his presence and immediately took to the sky with a flap of his wings. The flying-type stayed a good fifteen feet in the air as he scrutinised his opponent with narrowed eyes.

"Let's win this, Pidgeotto!" Gary encouraged, to which Pidgeotto replied with a eager shriek. "Agility, then Double Team. Confuse it!"

Pidgeotto was barely visible as he danced through the air, blurring over Tangela as it struggled to follow its opponent, and then produced a dozen illusory copies to further confuse Tangela. The vine pokémon's curious eyes glanced up warily as it tried to keep track of the clones and identify the real one, but in vain.

"Vine Whip, destroy them!" said Giselle.

Tangela cocked its body curiously for a second, then six thin vines burst from its body and lashed at the dozen Pidgeotto blurring in the sky. Even the clones were too fast for Tangela to destroy, but thirty seconds later the vine pokémon managed to mow down two of the illusory copies.

Gary put an end to that, however. He called for an Air Cutter, and suddenly every single vine darting at Pidgeotto was severed by blades of wind that whizzed at Tangela with surprising speed. Tangela flinched as the severed pieces fell at its feet and gurgled in annoyance as the shortened vines regrew.

"Sunny Day!" ordered Giselle.

Tangela gurgled, then fired a nebulous sphere of light into the air, where it instantly spread harsh sunlight over the whole field. Ash squinted as he accidentally glanced at the glowing sphere in the air, and he noticed that Gary looked a bit worried.

Tangela, on the other hand, looked positively fired up. It looked like it had had one espresso too many – it was jumping up and down and was gurgling excitedly as its vines soaked in the solar energy provided by the artificial sun. He didn't know much about Tangela, but what he did know was that if its ability was Chlorophyll or Solar Power, then Gary would have a tough time.

Giselle was smiling from across the field. "Energy Ball barrage!" she commanded.

Tangela generated a positively enormous sphere of concentrated solar energy and fired it at the Pidgeotto soaring in the skies. The Energy Ball easily devoured a Pidgeotto clone, and Ash watched in pure awe as Tangela kept firing Energy Ball after Energy Ball like a machine gun.

"Shit!" Gary cursed. "Pidgeotto, use Quick Wing!"

The wings of every clone began glowing and then they were darting at Tangela with enhanced speed. Four more copies were eliminated by Energy Balls in the process, but it was worth it when the real Pidgeotto slammed his wings into Tangela and hurled it away. With it dazed, Pidgeotto swooped in for another Wing Attack before flying back into the sky.

"Aerial Ace!"

The clones disintegrated into nothingness as Pidgeotto banked and Dove towards his opponent at Gary's command. Giselle, however, was not going to let that happen. "Solar Beam!"

Pidgeotto's body drove right into Tangela's right flank just as it finished charging a Solar Beam thanks to Sunny Day. Pidgeotto flapped his wings and made to fly back into the sky, but shrieked deafeningly in pain as a blast of solar energy ripped through the air and clipping the avian right in his back. Pidgeotto lost momentum and plunged down for a second or two before quickly flapping his wings and managing to stay in the sky.

The bird's looked quite tired after the powerful grass-type move, but he seemed to be able to fight for quite some more time. "Air Cutter!" Gary commanded.

Pidgeotto slashed his wings simultaneously, whipping up two blades of wind that swung right at Tangela, who quickly gurgled and formed a sparkling sphere of green at its trainer's command. "Energy Ball!"

The Energy Ball met the two Air Cutters, triggering a violent explosion that kicked up a cloud of dust. Ash watched with baited breath and gasped when Pidgeotto suddenly tore through the dust, his wings glowing with power as he slashed at Tangela, sending the grass-type hurtling. It pushed itself up with a multitude of vines, however, and began absorbing solar energy from the artificial sun before firing it as a concentrated beam of energy at Pidgeotto.

The Solar Beam grazed the bird's belly as he dived at Tangela for an Aerial Ace, but he ignored the pain on his belly and drove his wings into Tangela's writhing form.

This time there was no contest – Tangela was knocked out and Giselle recalled it before it could crash into the field. She considered Pidgeotto for a moment, scrutinising the tired bird with her sharp, brown eyes while tapping the pokeballs on her belt.

"And Candling is down to her last pokémon! Whew, this fight is making me excited!" Eleanora sighed in her mic.

"I'm excited too, honey bunches," Surge said to his female partner with a wink. "You wanna take this up to my room or what?"

Eleanora laughed nervously. "Very funny, Lieutenant," she growled. "Let's focus on the battle, shall we?"

"Looks like you're not as bad as I originally thought," Giselle mused out loud, smirking at Gary, "but you're still quite pathetic – of course, that's what all commoners are."

Gary scowled. "Are you going to talk my pokémon into unconsciousness?"

Giselle didn't reply, instead choosing to release a Ponyta. It was an elegant creature – the thin, pale yellow hairs covering its body were well groomed, and bright flames rippled along its spine, from the top of its head to its tail, which was also fire. Smaller flames burned at the back of all four of its legs, just above its knees. Its black eyes flashed as it noticed Pidgeotto in the sky, and the fire-type pawed the ground before whinnying a challenge.

Pidgeotto squawked right back, although Ash noticed that it was half-hearted. The avian's breathing was harsh and Ash could also make out that his flaps were more forced. Gary had noticed it too, but he didn't let the worry show on his face.

Things weren't looking good for him.

"Agility, circle it!" Giselle said.

Ponyta whinnied and slipped into the speed-enhancing technique and began to gallop around the field, causing Pidgeotto to spin in the air and keep track of it with narrowed eyes. "Quick Wing!" he said.

The bird nodded, then slipped into Agility like Ponyta as his wings glowed bright. With another boost of speed thanks to Quick Attack, Pidgeotto was easily able to keep up with Ponyta despite his fatigue and pain from the two Solar Beams he'd taken during the battle against Tangela. Ponyta whinnied in mild surprise as it saw Pidgeotto right behind it, ready to smack the equine with his powerful wings.

As Pidgeotto received another dose of speed, Giselle barked her idea. "Flame Charge!"

Pidgeotto shrieked as Ponyta's body suddenly flared with fire just as he smacked at it with his wings. The equine nickered in pain from the Wing Attack variance, but Pidgeotto wasn't left unharmed – as he flew back into the air, the flying-type's wingtips and several feathers on his body were singed, leaving a trail of grey smoke in his wake.

"Flamethrower!"

"Dodge!"

Ponyta reared back on its hind legs and opened its mouth to spew jets of flames into the air. Pidgeotto dodged it with ease, although he was considerably slowed due to his increasing fatigue. As the Pidgeotto looked for an opening to attack, Ponyta spun around in a full 360 to give its opponent no opportunity to strike it.

"Aerial Ace!" Gary said.

"Incinerate!" Giselle hollered.

Pidgeotto banked to the right and dived straight at Ponyta, who breathed out a narrow stream of flames. Incinerate grazed the feathered crest atop his head, but there was no more damage as the bird blazed at his opponent.

Just seconds before Pidgeotto was about to strike Ponyta, Giselle smirked and cupped her mouth. "Wild Charge!"

Ash watched as Ponyta gave up on Incinerate and its body flared with lightning before charging straight at Pidgeotto. Pidgeotto's eyes widened in brief fright, but, after realising that his attack could not be stopped, shrieked piercingly and fearlessly before putting all his strength into the Aerial Ace.

The two pokémon collided and a shockwave erupted from the point of impact. Ponyta and Pidgeotto were forced back by the collision, although the equine was a whole lot better than Pidgeotto, who tumbled harshly along the field before coming to a standstill at Gary's side of the field. The bird struggled to rise, but Ponyta blasted him with a blazing fireball for good measure that sent him unmoving.

Gary looked stunned as he recalled his pokémon and Ash blinked. He couldn't believe the match was over and his rival had lost. Surely he was seeing things—

"Looks like Oak's outta the tournament, folks!" Surge announced; even he seemed mildly disappointed and surprised. "Candling wins and proceeds to the finals, which will be held tomorrow at..."

Ash didn't listen to the rest of the giant's announcement. He was too surprised to do anything, in fact. Gary had lost? That was impossible. He'd always imagined the two of them facing each other in the finals of every tournament they entered together, although he seemed beat Gary in every single match. He felt odd, like as if he'd lost a battle himself, but he couldn't help it.

Newfound vigour coursed through his body and he clenched his fists determinedly. He'd have to win tomorrow – there was no way he could lose against Giselle, even though she'd beaten his rival. Although things would've been different if she hadn't chosen Tangela and Gary had sent out his Wartortle...

He shook all those thoughts. He'd have to win. He'd just have to.

But how the heck was he going to do that will one less pokémon on his team?

XxXxX

"I don't know why...but this food doesn't taste good right now."

Ash, Gary and Surge was having a quiet dinner at the St Anne's dinner hall. Their pokémon were busy enjoying their meal (it wasn't everyday when you were allowed to not eat pokémon food) and were the primary source of noise at their table. Surge was trying to liven up the mood by regaling his war stories, but after several failed attempts he turned his attention to the tin of vegemite he'd brought along.

Gary was right; the food was tasting a bit bland, but that might've been due to the gloomy mood wafting from the spiky-haired boy. He'd been quite sad ever since they'd exited the St Anne's stadium and had even chosen to stay in his room rather than spend the evening on the deck. Currently he was toying with his food and staring sulking at his half-eaten plate.

Ash sighed and patted him sympathetically on the back. "Come on, Gary...It was just one loss! You can't expect to win every time."

"But you won," Gary grumbled. "Now how the heck are we even going to battle together? You're just going to see me as some low-level grub with zero badges."

Surge groaned. "Is that what this is all about? Listen, Greenie, you just lost one friggin' match! It ain't like it's the end of the world! Don't you remember that you defeated me? 'Course, that was because I went easy on your ass—"

"Hey!"

"—but did I sulk for the rest of my life? No!" The ex-army officer glared at him. "Listen, Greenie, it ain't about how hard you hit...It's about how hard you get hit and keep movin' forward. Ya dig?"

Gary stared at his food for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Yeah, Surge. Thanks."

Surge nodded with a smile. "Now, will you eat before I finish your pizza? My order still hasn't come yet!" He glared furiously around the hall. "Waiter!" he barked. "Where the hell are my banana fritters?"

Ash watched as several diners nearly flinched at the loudness in Surge's voice and gave him dirty looks, but the decorated war hero didn't care in the slightest. A frightened waiter hurried to their table and produced a large platter containing a gazillion banana fritters and placed them in front of Surge's massive frame while apologising profusely, but the electric-type specialist simply waved him off before digging into his food like a Sharpedo in bloody waters.

"Now that we've solved your problem," Ash said, "can we solve mine?"

Surge looked up, a piece of his food hanging from his grizzly chin. "What's the problem, Rookie? Got a wet dream last night?"

Ash frowned at the man. "A what dream?" he asked in puzzlement.

"Nothing," Gary said hastily while shooting Surge a glare. "Go on, Ashy-boy. Tell us what's up."

When he was done, his rival stared at him with a poker-face for a few seconds before bursting out laughing.

"Ha!" He cackled. "You've got an even smaller chance of winning than me! Ha!"

Ash glowered. "Thanks a lot, Gare-Bear," he said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Anyway, Surge...do you think you can help me? Something?"

The ex-army officer scratched his chin but then shook his head. "Sorry, Ketchum. I'd be able to help you with something like murder, torture, rape, arson, heists, carrying out holocausts—"

"Yeah, we get the point," Gary snapped.

"—or even singing Journey songs," Surge continued, "but this ain't my jurisdiction. Sorry, kiddo."

Ash nodded slowly. "Thanks anyway, Surge." He sighed in frustration.

"Hey!" Gary's eyes lit up in excitement. "I've got an idea!"

"Spit it out, Greenie," Surge drawled.

"How about I give you a pokémon of my own?"

Ash groaned. "This isn't time for one of your stupid jokes, Gary."

"I'm serious!" he said. "Look, I could easily transfer a pokémon on your roster if I can change its trainer ID to yours! And who do you know has invented the pokémon transportation system?"

Ash frowned in concentration, but comprehension dawned across his face a second later and his mouth hung open. "Bill!"

"Exactly," Gary said with a grin. "Don't you remember what he said? 'Call me if you ever need anything'? Well, this is the time, Ashy-boy! Buzz him up, right now!"

"Wait, wait," Surge said, frowning. "Hold up a moment. What the hell are you two punks talking about?"

"Watch, old man," Gary smirked.

Ash quickly dialled Bill's number on his pokégear and pressed the call button. The screen blinked and Ash heard the device ring several times before it clicked.

"Who the blazes is calling in the middle of my dinner?" Bill's voice roared. "Just let me get my hands around your neck—"

"Bill!" Ash said. "It's me, Ash Ketchum. We met some time ago...?"

He was ready to cut the call due to the lack of response but Bill quickly replied enthusiastically. "Ah, Ash! How are you? Are you making good use of the privilege I bestowed on you and your friends?"

Before Ash could answer, Bill continued. "Anyway, you won't believe what I found in Mt Moon last week – a real fragment from the Moon Stone! And its power never fades!" he said in awe. "Amazing, right? I already evolved my Skitty and Munna with it! It's a real breakthrough in the evolution field, you know! I can't wait for Professor Rowan to pick up my bloody calls so that I can tell him of this—"

"That sounds fantastic, Bill," Ash interjected, a bite of impatience in his voice, "but I don't have much time right now. I actually called to ask you for a favour..."

"Anything, old chap!"

Ash scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Well, I was wondering if..."

When he was done, he heard Bill bark a laugh from the other end of the line. "Is that all?" he said, sounding somewhat offended. "This is hardly a challenge for my skills and abilities! Although this is illegal, you know..."

"Yeah, that's why I want you to keep this quiet, Bill," Ash pleaded. "Especially from Professor Oak. Please?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die!" Bill promised. "I mean, not literally..." he amended. "Let's see..." Ash heard the sound of buttons on a keyboard being pressed in rapid succession. "Gary Oak...age ten...pokémon caught: eight...Okay! Which pokémon do you want me to register on your ID now, Ash?"

Ash looked to his rival, who seemed to ponder for a moment before answering. "Growlithe," he said. "I don't think the rest of my team'll be willing to listen to you, even if it is for one match, but Growlithe's the friendliest. He won't mind it at all."

Ash nodded. "Did you hear him, Bill?" He spoke into the pokégear.

"Righto!" came Bill's reply. They waited for a long moment, then Bill made an exclamation of delight. "It's done, Ash. Growlithe is now officially on your team...even if it is by illegal means. Gosh, I hope this doesn't make me a bloody criminal..."

Ash grinned. "Thanks a lot, Bill. You saved the day."

"Don't mention it...You saved my hide too, remember?" Bill said. "In any case, just ring me up when you need to put Growlithe back on Gary's ID."

"Mhmm." Ash nodded.

"I'm rooting for you, old chap!" Bill cheered. "And wish me luck – I'm going Clefairy hunting after dinner!"

Ash muttered a cheery goodbye and then Bill cut the call. The dark-haired boy turned at Gary and Surge and grinned at the pair. "It's done! Thanks a million, Gary!"

"Ah, don't mention it, Ashy-boy," Gary said. "Although I do want something in return...How about one TM voucher when ya win this thing, huh?"

Ash rolled his eyes. "I'll think about it."

Surge simply shook his head and snorted into his plate. "Kids these days've got a better criminal mind than them damn Rockets," he muttered. Then he began wolfing down the rest of his food.

Ash felt much better for the latter half of dinner. He felt some kind of warmth flit in his body as he continued inhaling his pizza, which suddenly tasted a whole lot nicer. He didn't even mind when Surge accidentally belched right in his face and brushed it off with a smile on his face as one thought ran through his mind:

He did have a chance to win, after all.

XxXxX

Ash woke up early next day to train his pokémon for the upcoming finals. He'd been pumped up ever since he'd won the semifinals and he barely slept last night, but he didn't care. He was too excited to feel tired.

Once he entered the training room, he quickly released his five pokémon. He didn't count Growlithe since he rightfully belonged to Gary and was only momentarily (and illegally) on Ash's team. The orange pup didn't seem to mind at all when the good news had been broken to him at dinner last night – in fact, Growlithe seemed eager to work with Ash.

He laughed at Growlithe's enthusiasm as the canine immediately leapt into his arms and began licking Ash's face eagerly, drenching him in saliva. Saur growled lightly at Growlithe's behaviour, but quietened when Ash shot him a look saying that everything was alright. Zeus and Delphi seemed mildly surprised by the pup's presence while Luna trilled nervously. Hydrus simply stared dumbly at Ash with blank eyes.

"Okay, everybody!" the boy thundered once Growlithe had settled down. "You guys probably know about it because I told you all, but we've gotten into the tournament's finals. It'll be talking place right after lunch today so we've got a few hours before we hit it. Alright?"

His pokémon replied in a cacophony of sounds. Saur and Zeus glanced at each other with eager grins, Delphi chirped softly, Luna nodded determinedly, Growlithe yipped and Hydrus kept on staring at Ash.

Ash punched the start button on the digital keypad by the wall, causing six stone targets to pop from the ground. His team quickly took their place in front of each target and instantly began practising on perfecting their moves.

Ash watched Zeus fire a perfect Thunderbolt at the stone dummy, followed by a Charge Beam that made Hydrus quack in surprise when the air around the Flaaffy was suddenly charged with ozone. The boy nodded absent-mindedly and then turned his attention to Growlithe, who was panting excitedly in front of him.

"Okay, Growlithe..." The pup yipped happily at his name while Ash flipped open his pokédex and scanned the creature in front of him to learn about the moves he knew. "You know the procedure, right? Let's get a hold on your moves and then we'll start some training for you. Okay?"

Growlithe yipped in affirmative and scampered to several meters in front of his designated target. Ash scanned him for a second and waited for the list of learned moves to come up.

 _...knows the moves: Bite, Odour Sleuth, Fire Fang, Flame Wheel, Take Down, Flame Burst, Agility, Reversal. Its ability is Flash Fire, which powers up fire-type moves if it is hit by one._

Ash looked up from his pokédex and pointed at the target ahead of them. "Alright, Growlithe – use...Flame Burst!"

Growlithe reared his head back, then spat a foreboding fireball at the target, where it exploded violently, scorching the target and forming a thin web of cracks.

"Fire Fang!"

The pup crouched, then sprung at the target with a flaming maw. Ash winced when the canine chomped at the target with such force that the stone was punched with ease.

His flaming fangs heated the target for a good few seconds, then Growlithe let go and bounded towards Ash, sticking his tongue out as he waited for the next order. "Try Flame Wheel!"

Growlithe barked as he crouched down, and suddenly his entire body was cloaked in a burning flames. The pup stood silent for a second before somersaulting to resemble a spinning ball of flames as he crashed into the target.

"Agility!"

Growlithe blurred across the training room with such speed that Ash could only keep up with him by his bright orange fur coat. Ash smiled as he watched Growlithe running with ease due to the enhancing move; he wanted Zeus to reach that level when he used Agility.

Then the canine stopped and darted at Ash for his next order. The boy grinned at Growlithe's eagerness before pulling out a few berries and letting Growlithe feed on them.

He didn't try Bite and Take Down, since those were pretty easy and self-explanatory. Ash wanted to see the effects of Odour Sleuth, but for that he needed a ghost-type, since Odour Sleuth pulled hiding ghosts from their spiritual dimension and into the 'real world'. Essentially it gave ghost-types a physical form and disabled them from hiding in the shadows for quite some time so that they could be hit by normal- and fighting-type moves.

"That was great, Growlithe," he praised. Growlithe barked affectionately. "Take a quick rest and then we'll continue training, alright?"

Growlithe didn't do anything other than continue gobbling down the several berries in Ash's hand while the boy assessed the rest of his pokémon.

Delphi was still working on Psychic. She was close – immeasurably close – to mastering the move, which wasn't a surprise since the boost of energy she'd received since evolution had helped a lot. She could easily lift objects with her powers, but right now she was working on releasing the psychic energy in the form of a wave.

Saur was working on Double Edge. The Ivysaur was practicing the move on the stone dummy in front of him, although it was little more than a Take Down. Saur kept trying to put more and more power into each crash, but the recoil was so bad that he had to wait minutes before performing it again.

Zeus and Luna were simply perfecting their moves – they didn't have anything new to work on, so all they had to do was make sure their moves hit hard and fast. They were ready for the finals and they would make their trainer proud.

Ash only had doubts on Hydrus, since the Psyduck was still slow to respond to commands, but he too was doing his best to become stronger. Ash had also noticed that his friend was slipping into migraines more easily and quicker than before – could he be close to evolving? – but only time would tell what this meant.

As his friends trained their hardest, he found a smile stretching across his face...He would win.

XxXxX

Ash skipped lunch the next day when Gary promised to treat him to as much food as he (and his pokémon) wanted if he won.

Saur, Delphi, Zeus, Luna, Hydrus and Growlithe. Ash tapped the six pokeballs on his belt in nervousness as he took in the absolutely massive crowd seated in the bleachers. It seemed even larger than the previous days. Whatever the case, he made sure to put up a good fight today and prove his and his friends' strengths.

His opponent, Giselle, stood at the other end of the field, arms folded as she tapped her foot impatiently, her lips curled in a sneer. The girl was behaving like a stereotypical rich kid, and was extra-snooty today. If he was determined for one thing, it was to wipe that arrogant smirk off her face.

He didn't know much about her team; all he knew was that she had a Graveler, Ponyta and a Tangela, although a faint memory at the back of his head told him that she even had a Cubone in her possession. Still, he wasn't really worried. He would have a counter for almost everything she would put up against him.

"Hello, everyone, and good afternoon!" Eleanora's cheery voice boomed through the stadium. "Welcome to the finals of the St Anne Pokémon Tournament, sponsored by the Don George family and the Battle Club!"

Surge spoke next. "Today, we have my favourite rookie, a.k.a Ash Ketchum, in the red corner, and Giselle Candling in the blue corner!" The crowd roared at that. "These punks'll be going all out in a six-on-six pokémon battle! Personally," Surge added, "I think Ketchum's gonna kick ass today, but since Miss Eleanora's told me not to be biased, I gotta wish both of them luck. So, good luck to the both of y'all, but I'm rooting for Ketchum!"

Giselle scoffed at that. "Looks like your winning streak ends here, commoner," she leered. "Because you're going to see what real power looks like."

"Oh yeah?" Ash shot back. "Well, tell me if 'real power' needs a tissue or something when this battle's done with. I don't want someone crying over my shoes, you know."

Giselle flushed angrily. "Your lack of respect is appalling!" She fumed. "I'm going to crush you, you slithering worm, so get ready to learn your lesson and your place in this—"

"Ahem," the referee said in irritation, cutting off Giselle's monologue. "Are you two ready to battle or should I schedule this match for some other time, your highness?"

Giselle's eyes snapped at him, but she didn't say anything and just nodded curtly before snapping her head back in Ash's direction, her glare hardening once more.

"This will be a six-on-six pokémon battle!" the referee announced, stating the rules. "There will be no time limit, no substitutions, and the battle will conclude when all six of one's side are ether retired or declared unable to battle. The first move goes to trainer Candling. Release your pokémon!"

Giselle flipped her hair back and wound her arm back, luxury-ball in hand. "Get ready to be utterly humiliated, urchin!" she bellowed vehemently as she chucked the capture device out onto the battlefield.

The luxury-ball snapped open and sent out a beam of white light before rebounding back at Giselle. The white energy coalesced into the shape of a large, roundish creature, before the brightness faded, revealing her Graveler. The living boulder grunted, its mouth curling up into a sneer as it smashed its four fists together, ready for a battle.

Ash pursed his lips as he considered the rock-type. It was formidable, Ash knew it, since it was capable enough to take down Gary's Drowzee and then bring his Machop to the brink of defeat. His hand first immediately went to Hydrus' pokeball, but he stopped a split-second later – he needed the Psyduck when Giselle would send out her Ponyta. That meant his only choice was...

"Saur, come out and play!" Ash declared, tossing the scratched pokeball onto the field.

The Ivysaur appeared in a flash of light and growled menacingly at Graveler, his scarlet eyes locking onto the rock-type. He pawed the ground a few times before two vines slowly protruded from beneath the bud on his back, ready to strike his opponent at a moments notice.

"This is it, folks!" Eleanora said, and the crowd tensed. "The finals of the St Anne Pokémon Tournament! There will be only one victor to claim the grand prize of the tournament, but who will it be?!"

"It's Ketchum, I'm tellin' ya!" Surge bellowed. "Ketchum, if you don't win this match, I will thrash you so badly that you'll wish your mother never—"

"That's enough, Surge!" Eleanora shrieked.

The referee glanced between Ash and Giselle, then slashed his hand down. "Begin!"

"Multi Whip!" ordered Ash immediately.

"Hard Curl!" Giselle said.

Four more vines burst from Saur and lashed out at Graveler, who immediately curled up into a ball of stone and then glowed white for a few seconds as it took countless hits from the whiplike vines striking its body. The rock-type grunted each time a vine smacked its tough hide, but they didn't do as much damage as they should've.

Ash scowled. "Energy Ball!"

Saur immediately withdrew his vines as he generated a green, glowing sphere of solar energy in his maw, before firing it at Graveler with a burst of energy. Graveler barely uncurled its body when it saw the Energy Ball advancing at alarming speed and its beady eyes widened as the sphere crashed into him.

The moment it impacted, the Energy Ball exploded fiercely and pushed it a few feet away, Graveler digging his feet into the ground to reach a halt. It looked up only to be struck by a quick vine across its face, but that only made Graveler madder.

"Graveler, Stone Edge!"

Graveler punched the ground and triggered a line of bladed stones to erupt from the ground, aiming for Saur. The Ivysaur tensed while his trainer gave a quick order. "Evade it."

Saur rushed out of the way and managed to escape Stone Edge, much to Graveler's irritation. It snarled in a rather odd way and raised its four arms, but Ash quickly followed up with an order of his own. "Razor Leaf!"

Saur let loose a flurry of sharp-edged leaves at Graveler, who curled up into a ball once again and managed to bear the attack. "Vine Whip!" Ash called, just as Graveler started to uncurl.

Two strong vines shot towards Graveler, aiming right for the rock-type's sides. Giselle narrowed her eyes at the oncoming tentacles, but smirked as an idea formed in her head. "Grab them!"

The vines struck Graveler and made it grunt in pain, but then it grabbed them with its upper arms and prevented Saur from reeling them back in. The Ivysaur gritted his teeth, but as he tried to retract his vines a second time Graveler quickly wrapped his second set of arms around them to increase his pull, tugging at them fiercer than before.

Then, after a deep grunt, the rock-type gave a mighty heave which lifted Saur off the ground and sent him flying towards it. The Ivysaur's face looked shocked as he soared at his opponent, whose four fists glowed orange upon its trainer's commands. "Quad Smash!"

Ash's eyes widened in horror as he saw no escape for his friend from the Rock Smash, but he could hurt it. "Spore Burst!"

Just as Graveler drove its four fists into Saur's body, the grass-type released a cloud of spores at his opponent. Two fists smashed into his chin while the other two punched his underside, knocking him away. The saurian hit the ground harshly just as the spores settled on Graveler's tough hide, inflicting a number of status ailments on it.

Saur rolled onto his feet, wincing in pain from the four Rock Smashes he'd received, but his eyes gleamed in triumph – Graveler raised an arm to deliver a Stone Edge just as its body froze up, a pained expression appearing on its face – paralysis.

"Tomb Burst!" bellowed Giselle.

Rocks erupted from the ground, encircling Saur in a matter of seconds. Ash could hear muffled thumps as his friend tried to destroy his prison, but a split-second later the ground beneath him exploded with raw power, obliterating the Rock Tomb with ease but also damaging Saur.

The saurian groaned in pain from the Earth Power, but be still had enough fuel for him to go on. Ash was about to call an order when Giselle gave one of her own. "Hard Roll!"

Graveler tucked into a ball of stone and immediately began rolling towards Saur. The grass-type watched warily and his ears flicked in impatience when Ash didn't give an order, but the boy was simply waiting for Graveler to get in range.

When the rock-type was finally close enough, Ash snapped. "Sweet Scent!" he yelled.

Saur quickly began shaking his entire body from side to side, the fronds and bud on his back jiggling, causing a pink powder to be released in the air.

A lazy smile formed on Ash's face as the aroma permeated his nostrils, but Sweet Scent had a very different affect on pokémon than it did on humans. The pink powder diffused in the air, and Giselle clenched her fists in frustration when Graveler became even slower as the cloyingly sweet aroma entered its system, making its movements less crisp and more sluggish.

"Don't lose heart!" Giselle barked. "Keep going!"

Trusting its trainer, Graveler ignored the fact that its speed was significantly diminished and kept barrelling towards Saur, who simply smirked right back at it.

"Multi Whip!" Ash ordered. The Ivysaur grunted, unleashing a plethora of vines that kept striking Graveler's tough body in order to weaken it. While the Vine Whips wouldn't obviously knock it out due to its heightened defences, they would wear it down and bring it closer to defeat.

Suddenly Graveler froze. Ash watched Giselle stamp the ground in irritation as paralysis took over its body temporarily, causing Graveler to uncurl and twitch as the Stun Spores did their work. The boy grinned, taking his chance. "Energy Ball!"

Graveler grunted as the sphere slammed dead-centre into its body, causing its form to roll a good distance away from the impact. A second Energy Ball smote it in the face, and the living boulder roared in fury and pain.

Nevertheless, Graveler rolled onto its front, gingerly pushing itself up with its four arms. The rock-type staggered for a moment as it tried to balance itself, still groggy from the barrage of attacks it'd received since the start of the battle. Graveler fell to the ground, but managed to keep itself standing by pressing its rocky palms on the ground.

Ash had no doubt that Giselle's Graveler had impressive defences – even more so, due to the continuous use of Harden and Defence Curl – but, unless he was mistaken, Saur's brute strength had managed to penetrate its rocky hide. The boy was sure that Graveler was knocked its last legs and another attack or two would finish the job.

"Razor Leaf!" Ash ordered.

"Rock Tomb!" Giselle countered.

Saur unleashed a flurry of fast-flying leaves at Graveler just as the rock-type raised its fists to deliver a Rock Tomb. Its speed greatly diminished from Sweet Scent and Stun Spore, Graveler bellowed in pain as the sharp-edged leaves slashed its body. It staggered back for a moment, but it still managed to keep standing, even though it was tremendously hurt. Ash didn't like to hurt pokémon, but if Graveler was being so resilient he needed to knock it down.

"Grab it with your vines," Ash said slowly, "then slam it down!"

Saur grunted, doing just that. Four thin, but strong, vines erupted from the base of the bud on his back and shot at Graveler's near-unconscious body like speeding bullets, each of its arms being wrapped by a vine. Saur grimaced with the effort of lifting Graveler, but he managed to do it and raised his opponent in the air while elongating his vines as far as he could. As Ash looked up and saw Graveler suspended in the air, limbs flailing in an attempt to free itself, he couldn't help but grimace.

This was going to hurt.

There was a loud crack as the Ivysaur abruptly swung his vines to the ground in preparation to slam Graveler, but just before it was about to hit the ground a beam of scarlet energy enveloped it, recalling it back into its pokeball.

Saur withdrew his vines and Ash watched as Giselle scowled at him while switching Graveler's luxury-ball for another. "Lucky shot," she hissed, "but your luck isn't going to be with you all the time. Shellder, go!"

The bivalve pokémon snapped its shell close and open once, the pink tongue sticking out like it was making a face at Ash. "Shellder may not possess the ice typing in its base form," Giselle said, "but it does have the ability to learn ice-type techniques, a type which your Ivysaur is weak to. Your pokémon doesn't stand a chance!"

"Maybe," Ash admitted, "but you forgot that Shellder is a water-type, which is weak to grass-type attacks. And I thought that you rich kids were educated."

Giselle's eye twitched. "How dare you!" she snarled. "Icicle Spear!"

"Energy Ball!"

Shellder fired a series of sharp ice crystals while Saur quickly launched spheres of green energy. The attacks collided, triggering a series of explosions in mid-air, forming a cloud of smoke to form, but was quickly dispersed. "Vine Whip!" Ash ordered.

Saur lashed his vines at Shellder, but the clam snapped its shell close as the green tentacles approached, allowing it to easily bear the attacks as the vines hammered its nigh impenetrable shell.

"Aurora Beam!" yelled Giselle.

A beam of multi-coloured energy was fired at Saur, who wailed as it struck his left shoulder and encased it in a layer of ice. Grinning, Giselle followed up with another order. "Ice Shard!"

Shellder immediately opened its shell and fired a thick, pointed spear of reinforced ice at Saur. The Ivysaur managed to leap out of the way at the last second, but growled in annoyance as the shard exploded into a hundred fragments and bounced off his hide. They obviously wouldn't hurt it, but it still irritated the Ivysaur.

"Vine Whip!" Ash said.

Saur unleashed a vine that immediately smacked Shellder hard, but the water-type had impressive defences and wouldn't be knocked out easily and even surprised them by clamping down hard on the vine a second later. Saur bellowed in surprise and began slamming Shellder on the ground, but Ash had other ideas.

"Reel it in!"

Saur nodded and quickly retracted his vine, bringing Shellder along with it. Ash waited as Shellder began speeding towards the saurian, probably not knowing what was happening, and once it was close enough the boy snapped. "Poison Powder!"

A cloud of potent, purple powder soon leaked from Saur's bud and quickly settled onto Shellder's body. The sturdy water-type squirmed and gurgled in pain as the powder took effect by pumping debilitating poison into its bloodstream through its thick carapace.

Giselle cursed under her breath, but quickly regained her composure. "Ice Beam!"

Shellder quickly opened its shell and fell to the ground before spewing a thick beam of frost at Saur. The grass-type bellowed in pain as the Ice Beam struck his body and cried out once again as a second sheet of cold froze his left flank. Saur glared at Shellder across the field, and gave one last snarl of defiance before his legs gave way and he slumped to the ground.

Ash recalled his friend and smiled at the pokeball containing the now unconscious Ivysaur. "You did great, buddy. Take a break."

Ash gauged Shellder from across the field. It hadn't taken much damage since its shell by itself was a huge hindrance. The best counter for it would be...

Zeus appeared on the field in a flash of white light. The Flaaffy bleated loudly and then locked onto the shelled creature at the other end of the field. Shellder snapped its shell in response and waited for its trainer to give an order.

"Icicle Spear!"

"Smash them with Iron Tail!"

There was the sound of glass shattering as Zeus swung his tail at the oncoming Icicle Spears, destroying them in quick succession. Chunks of ice bounced on the ground, where they slowly began to melt, and Zeus glared at Shellder, unfazed.

"Thunderbolt!"

"Protect!"

A jagged arc of lightning split the air, causing Shellder to instinctively snap its shell shut as a green orb engulfed its form. The electricity harmlessly washed over the protective barrier, which faded once Zeus stopped using Thunderbolt in order to conserve his energy. Shellder waited for a few more seconds before cautiously opening its shell and watch Zeus with wary eyes before its entire form shook a glowed purple from the effects of being poisoned.

Ash clenched his teeth. "Iron Tail; pulverise it!" he ordered.

Giselle smirked. "Iron Defence!"

As Zeus rushed at Shellder, the bivalve pokémon withdrew easily into its shell, which immediately began to flash silver as it toughened its defences. The Flaaffy's Iron Tail met Shellder, resulting in a harsh clang and Zeus' metallic tail bounced easily off the shell.

As Zeus brought his tail down for another attack, Giselle barked, "Clamp!"

Shellder quickly bounced back and dodged the Iron Tail before clamping its shell shut on Zeus' tail. The Flaaffy let out a grunt of annoyance and winced in pain as Shellder's grip tightened, the orb on his tail hidden inside the bivalve's shell.

Giselle was grinning like she'd won the fight. "As long as Shellder's clamped on your Flaaffy, you've got no way to fight back! Now what?!"

An angry retort almost left his lips, but he decided against it as an idea popped in his mind. "Confuse Ray!"

He didn't know whether Zeus had been able to use the move, but a second later he was answered. Shellder quickly opened its shell and began bouncing in pure confusion while firing jets of water in random directions. Zeus bleated as he flexed his tail, which didn't hurt much since the appendage had been hardened when Shellder had clamped onto it.

As of now, Shellder was a sitting duck. Being confused was one thing, but being confused and poisoned was something different altogether. Zeus just had to blast it with a few attacks and it was done for.

Which was exactly what he did. The Flaaffy sniped his opponent several times with fierce blasts of lightning, which completely engulfed the Shellder's small body and when the dust cleared, the water-type was barely conscious. When it tried to feebly open its shell, Zeus rushed at it in a cloak of lightning and knocked it straight at Giselle.

The girl fumed angrily and recalled her fallen pokémon. "Your luck won't hold put forever, wannabe!" she taunted. "Ponyta, let's go!"

Said opponent appeared on the field with a whinny and a nicker. The graceful equine's hooves thudded against the field as it trotted in a small circle before coming to a halt. Ponyta glared across the field and stomped the ground, causing the flames over its body to flare eagerly.

"Let's grab another win, Zeus!" Ash said. "Thunderbolt!"

"Flamethrower!" Giselle countered.

Ponyta sucked in a huge volume of air and spewed jets of flames a split-second later just as Zeus unleashed a blast of electricity. The two attacks clashed head-on, pushing each other back several feet before exploding over the field. When the smoke cleared, Giselle flipped her hair back arrogantly before issuing another order. "Agility and Flame Charge!"

Ponyta slipped into the enhancing technique and received another boost of speed as flames engulfed its entire body. The quadruped fire-type circled Zeus, who snapped his head every other second to keep track of it and fired jolts of electricity, but in vain – Ponyta was really fast, Ash admitted. Thunderbolt looked like got close sometimes, but Ponyta easily evaded whatever Zeus threw at it.

Zeus bleated in pained surprise as Ponyta suddenly rammed into his back while enshrouded in fire, knocking him away. The electric-type hit the ground but pushed himself up, only to be scorched by a torrent of flames that escaped from Ponyta's mouth upon Giselle's orders. Ponyta nickered in satisfaction and slipped into Agility once again as Zeus fired a Thunderbolt out of pure ire.

"Flamethrower!"

"Thunderbolt!"

Another explosion occurred, obscuring the middle of the field once again. Zeus converged on his side, watching the cloud of dust warily as he waited for Ponyta to reveal itself.

Then Ponyta, cloaked in flames, burst through the smoke, charging at Zeus with enhanced speed. Ash barely had the chance to open his mouth before the equine barrelled into him like a bullet of fire and sent the Flaaffy airborne before he crashed into the psychic barriers.

Ash gritted his teeth. "Electro Ball!"

As Zeus rapidly compressed the electric-type energy into a sphere, Giselle countered. "Flamethrower!"

Both moves were launched and collided head-on, generating a slight shockwave, but the Flamethrower managed to tear through the Electro Ball, although the flames were certainly dampened. Zeus bleated more in annoyance than in pain as the flames seared his mane of wool and retreated slightly by backing away.

"Flame Charge/Agility combo!" Giselle ordered.

As Ponyta enshrouded itself in flickering flames and circled its side of the field for a moment, then it darted at Zeus with a burst of speed. The Flaaffy tried his best to dodge by doing a wait-and-dive manoeuvre, but Ponyta was just too fast for him and crashed straight into Zeus.

The flames around the equine died and it made to scurry away, but Ash was not going to let it go unscathed. "Thunder Wave!" he bellowed. "Aim for the legs!"

Zeus grunted in pain, but did as he was told. Taking precise aim, he sniped each of Ponyta's four ankles with thin lances of electricity, causing it to nicker in surprise and pain as the paralysis took over, and it fell to the ground. Zeus looked satisfied as he ogled at the twitching Ponyta for a second before charging up with electricity upon his trainer's order. "Thunderbolt!"

Ponyta screamed as electricity filled its body and blasted it a good few meters away. However, the fire horse pokémon managed to push itself up with quavering legs and glared angrily at Zeus across the field.

Ponyta was certainly breathing heavily now and it looked quite tired, even though it had barely taken any hits. The way Ash saw it, it was right now a glass cannon. It could deal devastating damage with blistering speed, but even a mild injury would slow it down due to its sloppy defences. All Zeus had to do was snag it with a few more hits and it was done for.

"Charge Beam!" the boy commanded.

"Agility!" Giselle cried frantically.

Zeus fired an intense beam of electricity just as Ponyta dodged the attack by slipping into its psychic potential. Even though the Thunder Wave had slowed it down, it was still fast enough to dodge attacks with the help of Agility. The only way he'd be able to snipe it would be if Ponyta would get paralysed all of a sudden, which would give Zeus a clear shot.

Ash gritted his teeth as Ponyta dodged yet another Charge Beam from Zeus. "Agility, then Wild Charge!"

Zeus grunted and he too slipped into the enhancing technique in order to receive a burst of speed. Ash felt a grin forming on his face as the Flaaffy was easily able to keep up with Ponyta, who whinnied in surprise when it saw Zeus running next to it before the electric-type slammed into it with a sheen of electricity surrounding his body.

Ponyta hit the ground from the impact of Wild Charge and grunted in pain, but it slowly pushed itself back up. The equine glared at Zeus, its knees wobbling slightly.

Apparently Giselle too realized that her Ponyta couldn't go on much longer, because she called out her last resort. "Overheat!"

Ash's eyes widened in shock as the flames running alone Ponyta's spine suddenly spiked up, building up a horrific amount of heat. Beads of sweat instantly started trickling down his cheeks from the intense heat being radiated from the equine. Overheat was a terrifyingly powerful fire-type move that required the user to unleash an astounding amount of fire that would devour the opponent in scarlet flames. All he knew about the move was that a minute number of pokémon learnt the move naturally since the move was exhausting in nature and some pokémon could even faint from using it, which meant that Giselle must've spent an absurd amount of money to purchase the incredibly expensive move in TM form.

Ash cursed under his breath as he watched Ponyta scream furiously as it began to move towards Zeus. The Flaaffy himself looked terrified by his opponent, who seemed to be one with the fire...a fire that would take out anything in its path.

Like Zeus.

"Thunderbolt!" Ash bellowed frantically. "Take it out before it uses the move!"

But it was too late; as Zeus thrust all his power into a final Thunderbolt, Ponyta practically detonated. An explosion of flames burst outwards from Ponyta, racing at Zeus like a jet. Ash's eyes bugged out when the Thunderbolt fizzled out a solid foot away from the flames. What even—?

There was a screech as the flames completely engulfed Zeus, severely scorching his rubbery body – he was obviously unconscious, and Ash wasted no time recalling his friend, but Ponyta was no better. The effort of simply using Overheat had completely drained it. The equine staggered for a few moments, then its legs gave way and it fell to the ground harshly.

The boy thanked Zeus for his hard work before reattaching the scratched pokeball onto his belt. He closed his eyes and took a breath. The score 3-2 in his favour. All he had to do was play this safely and he and his team would win.

Giselle was glaring at Ash from across the field. Then she smirked in obvious arrogance. "Looks like you've done well for a commoner," she sneered, "but let's see how you fare against this – Meowth, let's go!"

The girl tossed another ultra-ball in the air (why was she even participating? She could easily buy the prizes and more without wasting a moment) and the sphere snapped open to send out a familiar flash of light. The energy shaped itself in the basic form of a Meowth, but when the light faded it was drastically different from the felines Ash was familiar with.

It had purplish fur, for one. The second difference Ash noted was that its body was slimmer, leaner compared to its normal counterpart. The strange Meowth had white paws rather than brown and its were far more triangular than normal.

Ash frowned. What the heck was that thing?

Giselle smirked smugly. "Looks like you're not familiar with this kind of Meowth," she said, "So allow me to enlighten you. This—" she pointed an elegant arm lazily at the strange Meowth, "—is an Alolan Meowth from the Alola region. They're bred only for royalty, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that you don't know about them."

Ash ignored her snide comments, but continued staring at the Meowth. He didn't know much about the Alola region, except that it was south to Unova and was comprised of a few islands. He only knew about the secluded region because Professor Oak's cousin, Samson Oak, came over to Kanto a few times from said region. Samson (or "Uncle Sam" as Gary called him) ran a trainer academy in the Alola region and worked with Professor Kukui, who was the leading authority on pokémon in Alola.

He didn't dare underestimate this Alolan Meowth, even if it seemed like a pushover. If it looked different, then it had to be different in every possible way.

Growlithe was his third pokémon. As swore he could hear Gary shout from the crowd, "Go Growlithe!" but that could've even been his imagination. In any case, the orange pup appeared on the battlefield with a cheery yip, although his eyes drew close when he understood that he was in battle.

Growlithe flattened his body in preparation to attack, fangs bared. Ash glared at his opponent across the field as Giselle made the first move.

"Fake Out!" Meowth yawned lazily, then darted at Growlithe with sudden speed before lashing out at him with its tail. The canine flinched in surprise as the tail smacked him across the face, allowing Giselle to follow up with her next move.

"Bite!" she yelled.

With a fierce little battle cry, the cat charged its target and began the quickly rake Growlithe with sharpened claws. Growlithe growled angrily and instinctively breathed a blanket of red-hot embers that scorched the Alolan Meowth's purplish fur coat and earned a hiss of pain.

"Fire Fang!" Ash yelled as Meowth darted away. Growlithe's maw erupted in flames before he lunged at his target with the intent to dig his sharp teeth into his opponent, but Giselle didn't allow that to happen. "Screech!"

A ear-splitting screech forced Ash to throw his arms over his ears. Growlithe screamed furiously in an attempt to drown out the horribly shrill sound and shook his head to clear it out, but while the Screech had him distracted, Meowth blurred at him and bit the canine with its sharp fangs.

Growlithe's furious barks replaced the Screech and he bit at Meowth out of reflex, but the feline let go of the Bite and Growlithe missed his target by a mere centimetre. Growlithe spat at the ground in anger and glared at Meowth, who had an smug expression on its face that only made Ash and the canine furious.

"Night Slash, Meowth!" Giselle said. Meowth elegantly took a step forward before lunging, its claws flashing an unnerving black, filling the talons with negative energy.

"Agility!" Ash countered.

As Giselle's Alolan Meowth slashed at Growlithe, the orange canine blurred away with a burst of speed as he slipped into the enhancing technique. Meowth missed him by a mile and hit the dirt with a thud, hissing in annoyance. It pushed itself up and shook its head, a bit dazed by the impact, but Ash grabbed his chance. "Flame Wheel!"

Growlithe leapt at Meowth and somersaulted in mid-air just as a thick veil of fire engulfed in body. Meowth shrieked as Growlithe barrelled into it its back, knocking it to Giselle's side, where it hit the ground. Meowth groaned, but it shook of the pain and stood back up once again.

"Shadow Ball!"

"Flame Burst!"

The two attacks clashed and triggered a violent explosion that kicked up a cloud of dust that covered the field. Growlithe closed his eyes as the dust flowed over him, then shook the grime off his fur.

Suddenly a figure darted out of the obstruction – then another, followed by yet another. Ash's eyes widened as a dozen Alolan Meowth raced at Growlithe, their claws glowing a menacing black. It had used Double Team, and he had no way of knowing which was the real one.

Then an idea clicked in his head. "Growlithe, use Flame Wheel while laying down on your side!"

Growlithe looked a bit hesitant, but listened to his trainer's friend's orders. He curled up on his side and looked like a wheel laying flat on the ground – that is, a wheel on fire as it spun on its own.

Ash grinned as he saw Growlithe spinning on his side, then grinned even wider as a few embers detached from his flaming body and shot out in every direction. The fires struck a few of Meowth's copies and the clones instantly disappeared, until there was only the real one remaining.

"Flame Burst!"

Meowth shrieked as infernal flames exploded against it, scorching the fur on its body as it was knocked away from the force behind the fireball. Giselle fumed. "Shadow Ball!"

"Dodge it with Agility," Ash said slowly. "Then use Take Down!"

Growlithe easily blurred away from the ominous sphere and then rushed at Meowth with all his speed. The fire-type put all his strength into the charge, and slammed into Meowth, who surprisingly took it. What was even more surprising was that it was still standing, albeit severely tired.

Giselle was grinning for some reason. "Payback!"

The boy's eyes widened as Meowth was suddenly enveloped in a black aura. The feline hissed as loud as it could before barrelling into Growlithe such brute force that was unnatural for such a frail creature. Growlithe yelped as he was sent hurtling across the field for several seconds before he slid to a halt, body aching in pain. Giselle barked a triumphant laugh before speaking another order.

"Assurance."

Growlithe barely had time to recover before Meowth spun around and slammed its tail into the fire-type, sending him hurtling away with a cry of pain. Assurance doubled in power if opponent had taken damage shortly before the attack was executed. It was somewhat similar to Payback, although Payback involved the user to take some damage and convert that into additional negative energy for the user to attack with.

Growlithe groaned, obviously hurt, but pushed himself up despite his shaking limbs. Ash didn't want Gary to get pissed with him for injuring his rightful pokémon further, but if Growlithe had the will to go on, who was he to stop him?

"Okay, Growlithe," he said, "you can go on, but if I feel you're pushing yourself I'll recall you. Okay?"

Growlithe yipped, then continued to glare at Meowth, who looked equally tired.

"Get in close with Agility," he said. "Then Fire Fang."

Growlithe nodded and began to run. Ash was surprised that the pup had so much juice in him even though he'd taken a lot of damage recently. Gary hadn't been joking when he said that Growlithe was one his most powerful pokémon and the pup was proving his worth.

Meowth watched warily as Growlithe circled it, then spat a compressed ball of shadowy energy at him, but he avoided the attack by an inch. Growlithe circled his opponent once more before jumping at it from the left, and the Alolan Meowth could only yelp in surprise as Growlithe caught it and bit into its shoulder with Fire Fang. Growlithe landed back on the field as flames scorched Meowth's fur and made it hiss with pain. It failed around to escape, but Growlithe pinned it down with its larger paws and surprising strength as he continued to dig his burning fangs deeper into Meowth.

"Shadow Ball, Meowth!" Giselle yelled desperately.

Still flailing, Meowth formed the ghostly sphere and let it explode right there. The sudden blast forced Growlithe to release it with a pained yelp, and he shook his head, dazed by the sudden detonation, but he could still go on for some more time.

"Reversal!" Ash cried as Meowth tried to recover, desperate to take it out of the match.

Growlithe covered the distance with Agility and grabbed a dazed Meowth with his four paws, then flung the dark-type over his head in a suplex-like motion, smashing his opponent's head into the ground. Right when Meowth's head brutally crashed into the ground, it shrieked and its eyes jolted prior to going completely blank.

Growlithe gained enough momentum to shield himself from impact and bounced back onto his feet, spitting a fireball in satisfaction before padding over to Ash, his tongue lolling out of his mouth. Ash grinned and gave the cub a thumbs-up. "Great job, Growlithe! You're awesome."

Growlithe drank in the praise for a while before turning to face Giselle, who had recalled her fourth defeated pokémon. The girl was red in the face and her eyes were blazing as she grabbed her fifth pokeball, sending out a pokémon he'd never seen before.

It was bipedal, with long arms and short, stocky legs. Its skin was light blue in colour, but it had an orange belly and cheeks and eyes. Two, large fins sprouted from its posterior while another fin was on its head, like a mohawk.

Since Giselle wasn't friendly enough to identify the pokémon for him, he scanned it with his pokédex, which called the creature a Marshtomp and tagged it as a water- and ground-type pokémon. He clenched his fists; if only Saur was still conscious...

He shook his head; there was no point in brooding over past mistakes right now. "Agility and Take Down, Growlithe!" Ash ordered.

Growlithe barked as he slipped into the enhancing technique, charging straight at Marshtomp. The water-type narrowed its eyes as Growlithe drew near and snapped when Giselle shouted an order. "Mud Shot!"

Marshtomp opened its mouth to spit a hard-packed ball primed to hit Growlithe in the face. The Mud Shot slammed into the charging pup's face and slowed him down, but he still raced at Marshtomp, resilient as ever.

Giselle scowled. "Stubborn beast. Fine, then! Water Pulse!"

Marshtomp began forming the sphere of water just as Growlithe slammed into its torso, repelling the amphibious creature a few feet away. Although Marshtomp grimaced a bit in pain, it completed forming the Water Pulse and launched it at Growlithe with a burst of energy.

The sphere of water crashed into Growlithe, causing a point-blank explosion as Growlithe was drenched and blown away by a pulsing wave of energy, sending the pup airborne. Ash returned Growlithe back into his pokeball – there was no way the canine could've recovered from that and there was no point in hurting him even further. He clipped the capture device on his belt before considering Marshtomp and choosing his next fighter.

Luna appeared in a flash of white light. The Clefairy hummed serenely after she was released from her confines, and her eyes locked onto her foe. She curled her fists as he eyes narrowed, but Marshtomp seemed utterly unfazed by her determination.

Ash decided to take the first move. "Luna, Cosmic Power!"

"Ice Beam!" Giselle ordered.

Luna immediately closed her eyes and took a deep breath as a mystic, pink-red aura outlined her body. Marshtomp reared its head back and charged up a sphere of icy energy in its open mouth, then fired the beam in arcing rays at the Clefairy. However, Luna completed increasing her defences and dodged the Ice Beam, which struck the ground and formed a layer of frost over it.

"Double Slap!" Ash called. Luna rushed at Marshtomp, winding her fist back with the intention of pummelling it to the point of defeat. The Clefairy repeatedly clobbered the water-type with her tiny fist, but Marshtomp easily weathered the blows with its strong arms and retaliated with a fierce Mega Punch to the face that sent the Clefairy airborne.

"Mud Shot!" Giselle yelled. Marshtomp nodded curtly, opening its mouth to belch a hard packed ball of mud at Luna just as she crashed into the ground. She squealed in pain as the Mud Shot struck her face, blasting her away further. "Ice Beam!" An icy ray shot towards Luna, who instinctively curled up in order to shield herself from the blow, but it didn't prevent the ice from forming on her pink body anyway.

The Clefairy uncurled, glaring at her opponent. "Magical Leaf!" Ash ordered.

Luna spun rapidly, releasing a flurry of fast-flying leaves that kept slashing Marshtomp no matter how well it tried to dodge them. The water-type screamed in pain as the Magical Leaves struck its body, making Ash grin while Giselle cursed under her breath. "Iron Tail!" she screamed.

Ash didn't know how an amphibian could use Iron 'Tail', but he was answered a second later as the two caudal fins on Marshtomp flashed silver before the creature raced at Luna. The Clefairy braced herself, waiting for her trainer's order.

"Dodge!"

Luna leapt away at the last second, effectively avoiding the attack at first, but Marshtomp simply whirled around and slammed its caudal fins into Luna. She yelped in pain, but stood her ground, glaring at Marshtomp.

Ash decided to try something risky. "Metronome!"

Metronome was a strange move. There were an extremely few number of pokémon that learnt the move naturally – the Clefairy line, for one. It involved the user stimulate their brain with some weird energy into using nearly any move.

It was risky, though. Metronome would randomly select a move, so you couldn't be sure that it would be something useful. The whole process relied on nothing but pure chance. Maybe he'd get lucky and Luna pull a Hyper Beam right now.

However, there were some rumours of pokémon so talented with the move that they could use exactly whatever they required with precision. Ash didn't know if it was true, but if it was then he'd have to get Luna to master Metronome. If she could use any move she wanted, she would become invaluable in battle.

He watched as the Clefairy raised her fingers, which glowed brightly as she waggled them for a second. A silver aura enveloped her before, somehow, her body launched a mass of venomous barbs flying, covering Giselle's side of the field. The barbs lay on the ground for a moment before sinking in, leaving only the points above the ground.

Toxic Spikes wasn't the worst move, a while Ash would've preferred a Solar Beam, inflicting poison on their opponent was a rather good strategy. At least it hadn't been something like Explosion, which would've instantly knocked Luna out of the match.

Marshtomp let out a cry of pain and came to a sudden stop, cringing at the poisonous barb lodged in its foot as it pumped debilitating poison into its body. Giselle paled and opened her mouth to give Marshtomp an order, but Ash took the chance without a moment to lose. "Magical Leaf!"

Luna disembogued a ferocious scream before expelling a flurry of glowing, green leaves from somewhere on her back at Marshtomp. "Protect!" Giselle countered, and Marshtomp raised its arms to produce a wondrous orb of green that engulfed the amphibian and protected it from the leaves, which clattered harmlessly against the barrier. Marshtomp dropped the barrier a second later and fired a concentrated beam of cold straight at Luna, freezing the fairy-type's left shoulder and eliciting a sound of pain.

"Disarming Voice!"

"Water Pulse!"

Lu let loose a cry of fairy-type energy just as Marshtomp launched a sphere of concentrated water. Both pokémon were blasted away by the two attacks, eliciting cries of pain from both ends of the field.

Ash gritted his teeth. "Double Slap!" he shouted.

As Luna charged at Marshtomp, he noticed Giselle watching calmly, although her eyes twinkled with excitement. Her lack of caution warranted some wariness from the boy and he wondered what Giselle was up to, but pushed down that thought when he saw Marshtomp grunt in pain as Luna delivered swift blows to his forehead. That obviously hurt the water-type, but it wasn't attacking back for some reason.

He felt like a can of uneasiness had been opened in the pit of his stomach, but shook that feeling away. He needed to take down Marshtomp if it was the last thing he needed Luna to do. "Magical Leaf!"

Marshtomp screamed as the razor-sharp leaves slashed its body, and Ash cringed when he noticed one of them had drawn a but of blood, but Marshtomp still didn't retaliate, not even out of sheer reflex. Even Luna was confused by her opponent's lack of reaction, and she cocked her head curiously as Marshtomp curled up into a ball. Ash blinked, finally noticing something. Was it his imagination or was Marshtomp glowing?

The water/ground-type screamed before its entire body was enveloped in a blinding, white aura. Pure white energy flared around its body before it blitzed at Luna with unnerving speed and crashed into her head-on.

The Clefairy screamed she was sent flying away, crashing into the ground with such force that she left a trench. Ash recalled her with a dumbfounded face while he racked his brains into identifying the move which Marshtomp had just used.

It had to be Bide – a move where the user stored energy from the damage it took before unleashing it with double the power. It was risky since it took some time for the user to build up the required energy to double the damage inflicted on it, but it was worth the pain...even though Ash didn't like it.

The only thing he was certain of was that Marshtomp was definitely tired – it had obviously felt Luna's assault and it was undoubtedly hurting right now. The amphibious creature grimaced in pain and gingerly flexed its arms as if they were annoyingly sore.

Ash clenched his teeth. "You're up, Delphi!" Ash shouted as he released the dual psychic- and flying-type onto the field. The avian gracefully spread her wings, chirping a soft note before staring at Marshtomp, her eyes betraying no emotion.

Giselle didn't miss a beat. "Ice Beam!"

"To the air!" Ash bellowed.

The Xatu erupted into the sky with blasts of wind from her powerful wings, forcing Ash to hold onto his hat so that it didn't fly away. Marshtomp's sharp, orange eyes tracked her for a moment before it unleashed a ray of freezing energy, which Delphi evaded with ease.

"Air Slash!" he followed up.

Giselle frowned. "Water Gun, destroy them!"

Sharp blades of wind were launched at Marshtomp as the water-type tensed, letting water rest in its gullet for a split-second before releasing it in the form of a high pressured jet, which it swept across the sky to destroy the blades of air heading towards it. The blades managed to slice through the blast if water, but halfway through their journey the Water Gun finally overpowered the blades and obliterated them into nothingness.

"Water Pulse!"

"Steel Wing!"

The Water Pulse sped at Delphi with astonishing speed, but the Xatu danced around the sphere, wings glowing silver. With a terrifying screech, she blazed at the Marshtomp like a bullet and ruthlessly used her metallic wings to hit it on the back of its head.

Marshtomp's orange eyes jolted, pupils contracting until they were barely visible, and leaned to the ground, but it found the strength to keep itself going and used one of its arms to support its weakened body. It was thoroughly injured, but it could still go on for quite some time before fatigue would overtake it.

As Marshtomp struggled to remain standing, Delphi looped in the air and swooped at her opponent to deliver another Steel Wing, this one aimed at the back of its skull. He had no doubt that Marshtomp would be out of it now—

Suddenly, Marshtomp's eyes snapped open, as if it had just had twelve rounds of coffee. An thin, blue aura flared around its body, giving it a surge of strength as well as adrenaline that quickly revived it from the brink of exhaustion, allowing it to stand up to its full height with ease. Marshtomp let out a passionate roar, then threw a punch at the advancing Xatu, icy energy swirling around its fist. Delphi shrieked in pain as Marshtomp Ice Punched her under the chin, but she got her revenge by slamming a Steel Wing, albeit a weak one, into the back of its head before flying off to Ash's side of the field.

Ash's eyes widened at the energised Marshtomp for a second while Giselle smiled nervously, surprised by happy as her pokémon's ability was triggered – Torrent.

Torrent was an ability that would activate when the carrier had been pushed into a state of near-exhaustion, causing said pokémon's water-based moves to become nearly twice as strong as normal.

Although the manifestation of abilities differed from pokémon to pokémon, it looked as though Marshtomp had a rather straightforward Torrent. Its entire body was encompassed in a thin veil of water that kept swirling around it, making it seem like it had been cocooned. It was as if Marshtomp had become water itself and it would be a major hindrance for as long as Torrent would last.

"Heads up, Delphi," Ash warned his friend. "That's going to be a problem for a while."

Delphi didn't respond, instead choosing to stare at the Marshtomp, who grunted menacingly as the veil of water cocooning its body flickered with energy.

"Put everything you've got in this one, Marshtomp!" Giselle bellowed, grinning maniacally. "Water Gun!"

Marshtomp opened its mouth, then spat an enormous jet of water at Delphi. Ash's eyes widened in horror and awe at the sheer size of the Water Gun – it was practically half-Hydro Pump when Torrent was triggered. Delphi didn't need to be told twice to dodge the attack and she launched herself into the air, narrowly avoiding the powerful Water Gun, which slammed ferociously into the psychic barrier in front of Ash.

"Water Pulse!" Giselle bellowed. "Destroy it!"

The veil of water around Marshtomp wavered as it formed a positively alarming sphere of pulsating water between its hands. With a tremendous roar, it hurled the orb into the air with a burst of energy, tagging Delphi in the face. The Xatu caterwauled furiously as she was knocked to the ground and drenched by the attack, her head throbbing in pain.

"Ice Beam!"

"Psychic, immobilize it!" Ash yelled desperately.

Delphi shrieked, spreading her wings to emanate a pulse of psionic energy from her body as her predatory eyes glowed blue. Marshtomp grunted as every muscle in its body froze, face twisted into a grimace as it got in touch with the psychic energy. Delphi raised her wing, lifting Marshtomp several feet into the air, before slashing her wing down with a furious shriek, causing the water-type to crash into the ground hard.

Nevertheless, Marshtomp pushed itself back up, still under the influence of Torrent, although the veil of blue liquid surrounding it was thinning every few seconds. It fired an Ice Beam not a second later, and Delphi screamed as the super-effective attack sent freezing shocks of pain through her body. The Xatu looked weary and tired.

Ash gritted his teeth – Marshtomp was going to be a problem and the only way to solve it would be to knock it out. "Shadow Ball!"

"Ice Beam!"

Delphi spat the ball of ghostly energy just as Marshtomp retaliated with a ray of icy energy. The two attacks shot across the field and met halfway, where they collided and exploded violently to create a thick cloud of black smoke. Delphi started to dart from left to right as she waited for the roiling smoke to dissipate and reveal her opponent.

Giselle, however, upon realising that her partner didn't have much time, had no desire to wait and yelled out an order in righteous determination. "Ice Beam, sweep it over the field!"

Delphi hastily flapped her wings and launched herself further into the air just as a river of ice tore through the smoke and missed her by mere inches, but it didn't stop. No, Marshtomp swept the Ice Beam across the field in a determined attempt to tag Delphi, but the Xatu danced around the attacks for several moments until, suddenly, thin icy tendrils converged on her soft belly and froze that part of her body.

The surprise Ice Beam was evidently weaker than the rest, since Marshtomp had let it fly when it was only half done, but it was enough; Delphi plummeted to the ground, dazed from the weak Ice Beam. Marshtomp's eyes tracked the avian before letting loose a precise Water Gun that slammed into her face, knocking her out.

Ash recalled an unconscious Delphi with an astounded expression on his face while Giselle smirked arrogantly. Then, the criticality of the situation crashed into him like a tsunami.

He was down to his last pokémon: Hydrus.

It wasn't like he didn't trust the Psyduck, but, right now, he felt as if he'd already lost the match. A wave of nausea flowed over him as he considered his position: he had to defeat Giselle's momentarily-overpowered Marshtomp and her next pokémon (which was probably her Tangela).

Ash gulped down the non-existent lump on his throat, fingers shaking as he switched Delphi's pokeball for Hydrus'. The Psyduck was still slow to commands, which wasn't a surprise since all Psyduck were, but those wasted seconds would most likely cost him the match. Hydrus wasn't his strongest pokémon, he admitted bluntly. The only thing he could rely on was his random migraines, which, as of lately, came after an attack or two.

"You're the last one, Hydrus," he muttered as he tossed the capture device, his voice devoid of hope. The Psyduck within appeared on the battlefield with a blank expression on his face, which was slightly scrunched up in a grimace, his stubby arms wrapped around his head as he felt a psionic migraine building up. "Make me proud."

Hydrus quacked in assent, but winced as his headache built up further.

Giselle completely lost it as she saw Ash's Psyduck form on the field. "That is your last pokémon?!" She shrieked in laughter. "Oh, good Lord...Well, let's make this quick. Water Pulse!"

"Dodge!" Ash replied tersely and desperately.

Hydrus cocked his head as the sphere advanced at him with alarming speed, but thankfully leapt away at just the right time and avoided the attack. Ash sighed in relief as the Water Pulse exploded on the ground, Hydrus quacking in surprise as a few drops of water splashed on his body.

Giselle scowled, but let her smug expression form once again on her face. "Fine, then. Take—"

The girl blinked as Marshtomp's Torrent stopped abruptly, and its previously weary eyes went completely white as the veil of water around its body disappeared within a second. Right before Marshtomp fell to the ground, Giselle returned it and glowered at Ash, who sighed in relief at Marshtomp's disappearance, although he wasn't any better off.

"And both Ketchum and Candling are down to their last friggin' pokémon!" Surge bellowed over the mic. "Who d'ya thinks gonna win this shit-show?! Let's find out!"

"I suppose you've done alright for a total rookie," Giselle scoffed, "but you're not going to get past this one – especially not when you have a stupid Psyduck at your side."

Ash scowled fiercely while Hydrus simply stared dumbly at her. "Hydrus is a lot stronger than you think."

Giselle huffed. "Go, Cubone!"

The girl threw yet another luxury-ball in the air and sent out her final partner for the match. Cubone was a somewhat small, reptilian pokémon with a large skull helmet covering its face. No one really knew lay beneath the mask, but there were thousands of ghost stories about them – that they take out the skull of their mothers upon birth and wear it over their heads, but Ash knew the truth. The skulls were actually exoskeletons connected to the scalp of the Cubone by strong fibres and blood vessels and whatnot, kind of like a Squirtle's carapace. They were much harder than the internal cranium of a Cubone and was used as a shield of sorts, as well as a way to intimidate opponents.

Cubone also sported a small bone club as a primary means of attack. Ash contemplated his next move as he waited for Giselle to attack first.

"Cubone is my starter pokémon," Giselle said, smiling softly, "although he is not the strongest; that position is taken by none other than Marshtomp. But he is still a formidable opponent and can easily take your little ducky out. Bone Club!"

Cubone brandished its weapon and started to run at run at Hydrus with a rather cute battle cry, although he decided it was menacing enough when he saw how angry those eyes were. Ash figured that keeping it at a distance would nullify most of its attacks, so he decided to go with that plan. "Water Gun!" he shouted. "Keep it away!"

Hydrus obeyed Ash's command almost instantly and spat a pressurized jet of water, which Cubone barely managed to avoid. Cubone tried to find an opening by running around Hydrus, although the Psyduck kept it at bay by following it with Water Gun.

Giselle cursed. "Rock Tomb!"

Cubone clubbed the ground with its weapon, and, a moment later, Hydrus quacked in protest as a circle of rocks burst from the ground around him and pinned him with painful force. Giselle grinned at the trapped Psyduck with glee. "Bone Rush!"

The lonely pokémon raised its club, which glowed electric-type, and lunged at its trapped opponent once again. "Water Pulse!" Ash said frantically, but Cubone lashed out with Bone Rush and caught the Psyduck in the back of his head. Hydrus cried out in pain as the club smashed directly under Hydrus' chin, driving the water-type backwards with such force that he ploughed through one of the rocks trapping him, setting him free but at the cost of a lot of considerable damage.

But there was also the fact that Hydrus had gotten hurt on the head...and that was where the tables would turn.

Hydrus pushed himself up with ease, gaining a blue aura around his body as his eyes glowed blue with psychic energy as well. Giselle paled at the sudden burst of psychic energy, but regained her composure almost instantaneously. "Bonemerang!"

Cubone wound its short arm back, then hurled the bone club at Hydrus, at whom the means of attack spun, creating a whirring sound in the air. "Disable!" Ash called, and Hydrus' eyes flared as he stopped the Bonemerang in its tracks, floating in the air as if frozen in time. "Now throw it back!" There was a short pause, then the club went spinning back at its owner with double the speed. Cubone's eyes widened, and braced itself as the bone slammed into its midsection, eliciting a grunt of pain.

Nevertheless, Cubone had got its club back and looked furious at having its own attack being backfired. "Iron Head!"

As Cubone charged at Hydrus, its skull-mask glowing metallic sliver, Ash gave out an order. "Confuse Ray!"

The Psyduck unleashed a thin ray of purple light, which struck Cubone's head and enveloped the charging creature in a matter of seconds. The ground-type gurgled in pain as its mind was scrambled, but kept charging straight at Hydrus and slammed into the duck's body, knocking him away.

As soon as Cubone got back up, the reptile began swiping at imaginary foes with its club, letting out fierce battle cries every now and then. Its eyes were glazed from the effects of Confuse Ray and it was a danger not only to itself but also to anyone near it.

"Psybeam!" Hydrus quacked, firing a brilliant beam of multi-coloured psionic energy, which blasted Cubone right in the face and knocked it to the ground. The ground-type screamed furiously, hurling its bone club in the direction opposite to Hydrus, and the weapon boomeranged back to Cubone and struck the creature's skull-mask with a clonk.

"Water Pulse!" Ash hollered

"Cubone, get up and use Rock Tomb!" screamed Giselle.

Hydrus formed the familiar sphere of water between his stubby hands and launched it at Cubone with impressive speed. The compressed liquid exploded in a blast of water upon impact, with enough force behind it to repel Cubone by several feet.

A few more Water Pulses later, Cubone's eyes cleared up and the mist around them faded. Ash cursed under his breath – Cubone was out of its confused state, but not before it had acquired a whole lot of hurt. He had a chance to win this and he was not letting that opportunity slip past his fingers.

"Confusion!"

Hydrus quacked, raising a clawed hand to release a blue wave of psychic energy at Cubone. The ground-type grunted as the raw psychic energy slammed into it, but it stood its ground. "Rock Tomb, then Bone Rush!"

Another circle of rocks sprouted from the ground, trapping the flailing Psyduck as Cubone rushed at him with a glowing club. Ash frantically racked his brains to find a solution before snapping. "Destroy the rocks with Water Pulse!"

Hydrus quacked and strained to move enough to execute his trainer's orders. Just as Cubone leapt up to take a swing at the water-type's head, Hydrus managed to pulverise the rocks trapping him by a blast of water. Cubone lashed out with Bone Rush, but its now-freed target ducked under the swing, causing the attacker to overextend awkwardly in the air. Ash went at it like a Sharpedo in bloody waters. "Scald!"

Cubone squealed as it was blasted way by the stream of boiling water, which propelled the reptilian ground-type several meters away before it hit the ground hard. It tried to push itself up by leaning on its club, but received another blast of scalding water for its troubles.

As Ash watched Cubone struggle to get back up, he realised that this was his chance.

How would he have Hydrus deliver the winning blow?

"Disable!" he yelled at the top of his voice. The Psyduck's eyes glowed briefly and Cubone's twitching body froze, outlined in red energy, Giselle paling in fear as she regarded her immobilized starter. Ash called for Hydrus to finish the battle, excitement and adrenaline gushing through his body. "Water Pulse."

A sphere of raw energy and water smote Cubone right in the face and sent it skidding across the field until it came to a halt at Giselle's feet. It twitched briefly, but Ash knew that it was unconscious since its eyes had rolled into the back of its head. Its trainer stared in shock as Surge announced proudly:

"Ketchum wins! What'd I tell ya, sugar-buns?"

Eleanora grinned, ignoring Surge. "After an intense match, folks, Ash Ketchum had claimed first place thanks to his powerful Psyduck! Whoo!"

The crowd exploded into cheers. Giselle dropped to her knees, a look of intense shock etched on her face as she stared at her Cubone. "No..." she was muttering to herself. "No way..."

Ash grinned fiercely, running at Hydrus and lifting the Psyduck in his arms. "We won, buddy!" he exclaimed. "We won – oh, I'm so proud of you, Hydrus, and I'm sorry I underestimated you..."

His friend merely stared blankly, the chronic headache disappearing as his eyes returned to normal.

Once Ash was done praising his teammate, he looked over across the field, half-expecting to see Giselle, but she'd already disappeared. He shrugged, but he couldn't help but feel a little guilty – he'd been wanting to patch things up with the girl, but he couldn't help it if Giselle herself didn't want to do anything.

He smiled as he felt the utterly blissful feeling of happiness wash over him as he realized that he'd won.

XxXxX

When everyone had settled down, Ash and the rest of the top four were given their rewards for placing high in the St Anne's pokémon tournament. Eleanora, Surge and a Don George had called the four trainers to the ravaged battlefield so that they could make a show of handing over the prizes.

"In fourth place, we have Matt Dear," declared Eleanora as she kindly shook the copper-haired boy's hand. He and Gary had faced off in a tiebreaker the previous night, and Ash was pleased to say that Gary had won rather easily – Matt's Chansey had been a pushover and it had taken Machop only a few hits to take it out.

Eleanora walked over to the temporary display table, which had been quickly set up after the final match between Ash and Giselle. The female emcee picked up a black case with the sign that read: 4th.

"Matt Dear gets to leave with five great-balls, two full restores and a cash prize of 4,000 pokédollars!"

Matt took the prize with a word of thanks as the crowd erupted in cheers for him.

"Our third place winner is Gary Oak!" Eleanora continued, smiling brightly at the spiky-haired boy, who looked at the crowd with a smug expression as they clapped for him.

Surge snatched the prize for third place and handed it over to Gary, saying, "Greenie here gets five great-balls, four full restores and 7,000 pokédollars! That's a shit load of money for a ten year old, lemme tell ya!"

Gary sneered at the giant, but didn't say anything. He was too occupied with his prizes to do anything else.

"The runner-up of this tournament is Giselle Candling!" Eleanora announced, and the crowd surged with cheers once again. "Let's give it up for the young lady for giving us an intense final match!"

Eleanora handed over the black case to Giselle, who received it rather stiffly. Ash noticed that her eyes were red and puffy, and her nose was scarlet. She must've been really torn up about her loss, Ash mused.

"And our victor of the tournament, Ash Ketchum!" Eleanora said with a cheerful intonation.

The audience screamed at and applauded Ash as Don George firmly shook hands with the boy. "Good job, young man," Don George said gruffly, giving him a smile. "You battled splendidly."

"Thank you, sir," Ash replied with a dip of his head. The burly man patted him on the back before handing over the collection of spoils while a photographer clicked a few pictures.

"As a reward for your victory," Eleanora said, "we present to you your prize: five ultra-balls, five full-restores, three TM vouchers, fifteen thousand pokédollars and a rare pokémon!"

With a smile on his face, Ash grabbed the bundle of goodies and pressed them close to his chest. He felt an immense amount of pleasure for all his prizes, but he was especially happy for snagging the mystery pokémon. He had no idea what it was, but he couldn't wait to find out. Not to mention that he needed to transfer it to Professor Oak so that it could be registered to his ID and legally become his.

Once the celebrations were over, Ash, Surge and Gary made their way to the spiky-haired boy's suite. He'd already called Bill and asked the young genius to re-register Growlithe to Gary's ID so that he could rightfully use the pup in battles, although Ash made sure to give the canine credit and praise for battling for him. Ash was even generous enough to give Gary a TM voucher for his help, a gift which his rival took gratefully.

Currently his team was at the nurse's station, getting checked up. They hadn't received any major injuries, but they had been banged up during the finals and he didn't want any stone left unturned for their wellbeing. All six of them – including Growlithe – had earned their fair share of glory and rest.

Surge slammed the suite's door shut with a grin on his face, seating himself on the edge of Gary's bed. "Well?" the gym leader said, as excited as the two boys. "Whaddya waitin' for? Set it loose, Ketchum!"

"Yeah!" Gary's grin was equally wide, and the Oak was rubbing his palms in anticipation. "Let's see what it is!"

Ash smirked, twirling the pure-red pokeball in his hand. Eleanora had called it a cherish-ball, but he honestly didn't care because he was too excited. "Alright then..."

He enlarged the cherish-ball, then tossed it into the air, where it snapped open and spilled out light, unleashing its contents. Ash watched with rapt fascination as the energy coalesced into a small form that revealed itself with a gentle burst of light.

The creature was one that he'd never seen before. It looked like a monkey – a two feet tall one – with primarily orange fur, although its underside, palms, feet and face were covered in pale-yellow hair. A spiralling tuft of orange fur sprouted from the top of its head and he identified it as a fire-type by the fierce flame that blazed from its rear end, immediately warming his hands.

Ash didn't have the foggiest as to what the creature was called, and neither did Gary, although Surge's eyes lit up in recognition. The chimp rubbed its big, black eyes, then tilted its head as it finally noticed Ash.

"Looks like you got yourself a beauty, Ketchum," Surge murmured with a whistle of appreciation.

Ash focused his gaze back onto the chimp, who was still staring curiously at him. "Hey there...buddy," Ash said, not knowing what to refer the creature as. "My name's Ash. I'm your new trainer."

At that, the monkey stood up with newfound interest and gazed at Ash reverently. The boy chuckled and grinned at Surge. "What is it called?" he asked the giant of a man.

Surge winked. "I could tell ya, but it'd be better if you check it out with your dex. It'll give ya a bit of intel about it, too."

Ash nodded and did just that. The chimp leered at the chrome device and Ash explained what it was. "Just stay put, okay?" he said. "This'll tell me a little about you. It's not going to hurt."

The chimp nodded and took to inspecting its surroundings while Ash aimed the pokédex's lens at it to gain insight on the new pokémon. The device whirred for a few short seconds before beeping and articulating the information in Daisy Oak's slightly scrambled voice.

 _Chimchar, the chimp pokémon. It is very agile – it agilely scales sheer cliffs to live atop craggy mountains. Before going to sleep, it extinguishes the flame on its tail to prevent fires._

 _This Chimchar knows the moves: Scratch, Ember, Fury Swipes, Flame Wheel, and Flame Charge. Its ability is Blaze, which boosts its fire-type moves when it is low on health._

"They're native to Sinnoh," Surge said suddenly. "They hand 'em out as starter pokémon there, and their final evolutionary stages are kickass."

Ash grinned. If Surge wasn't messing around with him, then Chimchar would eventually evolve into a powerhouse. He wanted to train the little creature right now, but he decided that could wait – Chimchar had just got here and there were only two days for the completion of the voyage, anyway.

He chuckled when Chimchar suddenly leapt onto his body, swiftly scurrying around until he was safely hanging off the boy's neck by wrapping his arms around Ash's neck. The chimp sniffed the boy for a moment, then ran his small hands along Ash's hair before suddenly stopping everything altogether, making Ash frowned in puzzlement.

Ash snorted when the flame on Chimchar's tail died out slowly; he'd fallen asleep.

Looks like someone had gotten their priorities right.

XxXxX

 _Click_.

Samuel Oak stared at the screen for a few seconds before brightening up when he recognized Ash. "Ash, my boy!" he exclaimed enthusiastically. "Good to hear from you."

"Hello, Professor," Ash replied. The boy snickered when Chimchar popped his head from behind him, staring curiously at the stranger on the other end of the line, whose eyes widened briefly before his features split into a smile.

"Ah...So you won the tournament, did you?"

"Yep." Ash nodded, then frowned. "Wait...Gary didn't tell you?"

"I'm afraid he didn't..." Oak sighed. "I guess he's just too egotistical to admit that you won something and he didn't."

Ash snorted at that and caught Chimchar just before the chimp would've hit the ground. It had been the morning after the finals, and he'd spent the entire night bonding with his newest friend. Well, not just bonding with him – Ash's primary reason for skipping sleep was Chimchar's hyperactive behaviour and ability to open locked doors in an instant.

Nevertheless, he'd found out a lot about the fire-type during those several hours. Chimchar already knew about trainers, pokémon battles, etc. and had an insatiable last for getting stronger. He'd also taken a few minutes to research the newest member of his team on his pokédex. Their line were known for their incredible speed, possessed an astounding sense of acrobatics, and were terrifyingly strong. Chimchar evolved into Monferno, who, in turn, evolved into the powerful Infernape, with crests of fire that blazed more intense depending on the strength of the apes. Ash was glad he'd won the tournament; he wouldn't need to worry about catching a fire-type any longer, since Chimchar already fulfilled his needs.

Ash held Chimchar close to his fire-resistant jacket so that the chimp would not get out of his sight. "Anyway, Professor, I called you so that—"

"—I could register Chimchar to your account?" Oak completed with a smile. "Of course. Let's get the transfer ready, and once we're done I'll send him back to you, since you're now allowed to carry more than six at a time."

Chimchar looked up at Ash suspiciously at that, but he reassured him. "Don't worry, Chimchar. It'll just take a few moments. Okay?"

The monkey stared at him for a few seconds before resenting with a curt nod. Ash chuckled, returned him and then placed the cherish-ball in the pokeball slot on the transfer machine. He looked at Oak, who nodded, and Ash pressed a button. The sync took a few seconds and Ash watched as the capture device disappeared with a flash before appearing on Oak's end of the line.

Oak quickly coded Chimchar's pokeball to Ash's trainer account before transferring the pokeball back to the trainer. He snatched the sphere the moment it arrived and released Chimchar without a second to lose.

"See," Ash said as he scratched the chimp behind the ear. "Didn't I tell you that it'll take a few moments? You're back already!"

Chimchar rolled his eyes, opening and closing his mouth repeatedly as if to say, blah, blah, blah.

"So, what do you think you'll be doing next, Ash?" Oak asked suddenly. "I mean, once you reach Cinnabar and come back to Vermillion by the return voyage, then what?"

Ash frowned slightly. "I'm not really sure. I mean, once I get the Volcano Badge, I'll challenge Erika next, who'll be a breeze compared to the rest now that I've got Delphi and Chimchar. After that I'll head to Fuchsia and challenge Koga, but then I'll have to face Sabrina after that...I mean, she is one of the strongest gym leaders in Kanto, and I'll really need to worry hard to beat her – her pokémon are super strong."

"Have you thought about catching a ghost-type?" Oak suggested.

Ash nodded. "Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that..."

"A good place to start would be Lavender Town," Oak said. "You'll find several ghost-type pokémon wandering around the Pokémon Tower."

He nodded. "Yep. I'll check it out."

Oak smiled. "Good luck, my boy. I have to leave now, so—"

"—Alright. Goodbye," he said before ending the call and walking away, Chimchar hanging around his neck.

An hour later, Ash had collected his five pokeballs from the nurse's station and was by the TM mart in order to exchange the TM vouchers for the information-containing disks. Not to mention that he also had fifteen thousand pokédollars to splurge with.

He had only two TM vouchers now, since he'd given Gary one for allowing him to use Growlithe in his battle, so he decided to use them wisely. He wanted to buy something that would benefit his entire team – or at least most of them. The Solar Beam TM was practically screaming his name, but Ash decided against it, since the powerful grass-type move would only benefit Saur.

He chewed his lip nervously as his eyes roved along the multitude of TMs that lined the mart's shelves. He'd already decided that he'd but at least one move that would help his team enhance their abilities, since all he relied on was brute force. It was a good thing that status moves were cheaper than the rest, since he also wanted to buy a couple of attacking moves for his team, since you needed strength to win too and not only strategies.

His first choice, after aeons of agonising pain, was Double Team. After seeing Gary – and several others – the evading technique so effectively, Ash snatched the disc off the wall and placed it in his shopping bag. It could give several of his teammates a new edge in battle so that they could confuse opponents and evade attacks with ease. He didn't have to worry about paying extra for the permanent copy since the TM vouchers covered that up too.

His second choice was Psychic, which could be used for Delphi, Luna, and even Hydrus once he'd evolve into a Golduck, which hopefully wouldn't take long. At first he didn't want to purchase said TM, but after finding out that Sabrina handed out Calm Mind to victors instead, he added that to his cart. While Delphi was close to mastering the move, the TM would give her a nice boost and she'd be able to perfect it with ease, while it would also give Luna something else to attack with.

He wanted to buy Ice Beam for Hydrus, but he figured that could wait. Ice Beam TMs were practically everywhere and he could always buy it when he'd hit the Celadon Departmental Store. Instead, he chose Sunny Day, which he had planned to buy anyway. So far Saur had only been able to use Chlorophyll out in the open, but what if he was battling in closed spaces, or at night? He needed to find solutions to these problems and Sunny Day was the best one.

He walked over to the clerk and placed the TMs on the counter, along with the two remaining vouchers, which were little more than slips of paper that could've been mistaken for a ticket to board the St Anne. He redeemed the vouchers for Double Team and Psychic and paid the required amount for Sunny Day. He planned to get his hands on a few other moves on his team, but this would suffice for now.

As he waited for the clerk to give him his receipt, Ash drummed his fingers on the counter, contemplating his next move. He decided to follow Oak's suggestion and capture a ghost-type. That would give him an edge during his gym battle with Sabrina, who struck fear in every trainer's heart. Psychic-types were particularly vulnerable to ghost-type techniques, as well as bug- and dark-type.

Ash muttered a thank-you and safely stowed the TMs in his technical machine case before heading out of the store, but he made a return trip when he noticed that Chimchar wasn't at his usual spot around the boy's neck and was instead hiding under the counter.

He sighed. For now, they were just going to rest. His team had earned that much and a whole lot more, and he had yet to introduce Chimchar to them. There was only another day before they'd reach Cinnabar Island, where he and his team would acquire their fourth gym badge and get a step closer to entering the Conference.

On the walk back to his room, the only thing he could think about was his nice, comfy bed on which he couldn't wait to drop on.

XxXxX

Something was nudging him, he realized as he was being forced awake. Whatever it was, it seemed particularly urgent at finishing its task and was determined to annoy Ash.

He slowly blinked the gunk out of his eyes, unable to take the pokes anymore. With a jolt and a fierce glower, he glared at awakener, only to frown in confusion when he recognized it as Hydrus.

Normally he would've gone back to sleep, but his curiosity and concern was spiked when he noticed a familiar blue aura surrounding the Psyduck, whose eyes glowed in a similar shade, which were signs of him having a psychic outbursts. What the heck?

But Hydrus was not alone. Towering behind him was Delphi, who looked exceptionally aggressive. Although her face didn't betray any emotion, her eyes did. They were glowing and wide with rage, fury, fear.

"What is it, you two?" Ash asked as he checked his pokégear, whose digital clock read 3:09 AM.

The duck simply quacked before pointing a clawed hand at the door. Ash frowned, confused at his pokémon's behaviour as Hydrus quacked once again, this time tugging at the boy's t-shirt and doing his best to drag him towards the door.

He glanced up at Delphi. The Xatu was simply standing like a statue while staring at Ash. The boy felt genuinely worried when he saw concern for her trainer flash in her eyes.

Ash sat on the bed, rooted to his spot for a few seconds before he listened to his instincts and his friends. He quickly recalled the rest of his team, all of whom were sleeping. There were three beams of red energy that penetrated through the darkness in the room as Saur, Zeus and Chimchar were recalled and he got dressed in a matter of seconds before glancing at Delphi and Hydrus.

"What happened – should I get my things?" he asked. Hydrus quacked in assent while Delphi nodded curtly. Then the two of them started talking to each other very quickly in their native tongue.

He had to frown at that. Hydrus and Delphi weren't the best of friends, so if they were both concerned about something then he deemed it wise to listen to whatever they sensed. They hadn't let Ash down before, after all.

The boy quickly gathered his things before double checking the room to make sure that he hadn't left anything of his behind. Once he was sure, he followed his two friends and slowly closed the door shut.

The corridor was fairly dim, with little light illuminating their path, although the glow around Hydrus' body was enough for him to see five feet in front of him. The Psyduck seemed to be on edge and quacked rather fiercely at random times during their little escapade.

"So..." The boy scratched his head. "Where are you two taking me?"

There was no reply.

After what felt like eternity, he found himself at the lowest level of the ship. He frowned at Delphi and Hydrus, who had sounds of aggression building up in their throats at whatever that was grabbing their attention. Ash sighed, wanting to give the duo a piece of his mind for walking him up so early, but that's when he saw it.

Death.

He gagged at the sight, barely managing not to throw up as he noticed a battered body lying spread-eagled on the hallway. A sailor lay in a pool of his own blood, which kept gushing out from multiple stab-wounds on his body and a nasty slit across his throat, contaminating his pure white uniform. His arm was bent at an awkward angle and his face was frozen in shock, eyes open and glassy as they stared into oblivion. Ash felt tears fill his eyes from disgust and pain as he watched the repugnant scene in front of him, his nose scrunched up as he tried to ignore to pungent odour wafting from the sailor's corpse.

Ash clenched his teeth, nausea filling his body. He'd just seen a dead person. He turned away as silent tears slid down his cheeks, but the image was burned in his mind. There was no way that he'd forget what he'd just seen.

After a few moments, he glanced at his friends. "How did you know about this?" His voice was unstable, shaking from the gruesome sight in front of him.

Neither of the pokémon replied. They kept gazing at the dead sailor, their features locked in a rictus of fury.

"Hey!" a voice hissed from along the corridor. "Grab that kid!"

Ash looked up and his features twisted into a scowl when he saw two grown men in black jumpsuits charge at him with maniacal grins on their faces. Painted across their chests was a big red 'R' – Team Rocket's infamous logo.

He grit his teeth. Team Rocket. He should've known.

His blood began to boil and fury and terror welled up within him as he saw the Rockets' hands drift to the pokeballs on their belts. He whipped at Delphi and Hydrus, whose eyes narrowed at the advancing Rockets. "Stop them!"

Hydrus quacked, his eyes flashing ominously, and the grunt closer to the boy was encased in a faint outline of red energy. As the Psyduck kept Disable trained firmly on the man, Delphi shrieked, raising a wing so that the second grunt was stopped by her psychic powers, outlined by a blue aura. Without a second to lose, the Xatu used her raised wing to guide the Psychic attack and lift the Rocket in the air, then hurled the criminal towards his own partner. The grunt crashed into his comrade, their heads clashing together, and the pair of them slumped to the ground when the slammed into the wall.

Ash clenched his fists as he stormed towards the pair of grunts, who were piled up in a tangle of limbs, taking care not to step in the pool of blood. The one lying on top of the other was still awake, unlike his unconscious partner, albeit dazed from the collision. The grunt groaned as tried to get up, but Ash ordered his Psyduck to Disable him and the Rocket was frozen once more.

Ash glared furiously at the pair, his breaths short and fast as Delphi and Hydrus flanked him like a pair of bodyguards. Team Rocket was on the ship. The criminal syndicate which was feared throughout Kanto and Johto, were on the St Anne, bringing who knew what horrors along with them. He grimaced when his attention was once again drawn to the dead sailor just a few meters away from him. Don't puke...

He grabbed the Rockets' pokeballs and stashed them in his backpack. They'd do something about the pokémon later. Even though they were unconscious, he didn't want them to have their pokémon with them.

He decided to interrogate the conscious criminal. "Delphi, maintain an eye on the Rocket. Hydrus, keep using Disable. Don't stop unless I tell you."

Hydrus quacked in acknowledgement, eyes still glowing on account of his psionic migraine. Delphi chirped softly, eyes blazing in anger.

He grabbed the conscious Rocket by the collar and pulled him in closer before slapping him across the face in order to fully rouse him. The Rocket groaned, blinked, then snarled when he saw the boy in front of him. He tried to move in order to free himself, but Hydrus put all his strength in maintaining the immobilising technique and rendered him helpless.

"What's Team Rocket doing here?"

The grunt snorted. "Like I'd tell ya. Why don't you run along, little kiddo? Give up the hero act."

Ash growled and punched the Rocket across the face. The criminal winced, but simply snorted in Ash's face.

"You think that hurts?" he retorted. "My own grandma hits better than you, you bastard."

"Oh yeah?!" Ash pushed the Rocket back to the wall, where his head slammed harshly. The grunt groaned in pain and grimaced, trying miserably to move and wreak vengeance on the kid, but Hydrus prevented him from doing so.

"Tell me!" Ash roared. "What is Team Rocket doing here?!"

The man smirked. "What else'll Team Rocket be doing, punk? Pillaging, plundering...a little bit of killin'...Y'know, the usual fun..."

"Fun?" Ash reiterated vehemently, tears welling up in his eyes once again. "You think killing is fun?"

He slugged the grunt across the face a few more times before shoving him away and rising up. He cast one last look full of disgust at the man before switching on his pokégear and ringing up Gary.

He cursed under his breath when his call went ignored; his rival was sleeping. Panic built up in his chest as his calls went unanswered again and again and again—

"Yeah, Ash...?" came Gary's tired voice from the speaker. "What's got you calling me at...three-forty in the night for?" he drawled.

"Oh, thank God," Ash exhaled in relief. "Gary, I need you here right now; there's been an emergency. I need your help. Can you get here right now?"

"That depends...What kind of an emergency are you talking about?"

Ash sighed. "Team Rocket's on the ship, Gary."

There was a stunned silence. Then: "What the f—!"

"Listen, I'm not playing the fool," Ash said quickly. "I need you to grab all your stuff – everything – and meet me here in five minutes. Don't trust anybody. And bring Surge with you – we need him in case something big goes down."

"I'm on it." Gary spoke with determination; his voice reeked of alertness. "Where are you exactly?"

"Use the tracking feature on the pokédex," Ash explained. "Professor Oak linked yours, Jack's, Natalie's and my pokédex together so that we can locate each other by the GPS."

"Alright. I hope you're not joking on me, Ash, because I really love my sleep."

Before Ash could retort, Gary cut the call. He sighed and locked his pokégear before whipping around at the conscious Rocket with a glare plastered on his face. The grunt had a smug smirk on his face, one which he intended to wipe out as soon as he could.

He couldn't wait for Surge to arrive.

As thirty seconds passed by, Ash decided to investigate further. He let loose Zeus, who was still sleeping, but woke up after several prods from Ash. The Flaaffy yawned lazily at his trainer, who quickly briefed him on the situation.

Zeus' alertness level went from zero to hundred in 0.002 seconds.

"Hydrus, Delphi, stay here. If they try something, don't hesitate – knock them out. Zeus, you're coming with me. I need to check something out." Hydrus quacked, turning his attention onto the Rocket once again. Delphi didn't respond at all – she just kept glaring at the unconscious grunt by her feet.

He spent around ten minutes checking out his surroundings. The hallway was empty, and there were fortunately no more corpses for Ash to see. At the end of the corridor was a door which had a plaque that read: _Employees Only_.

Slowly and cautiously, he twisted the doorknob, not wanting to warn anyone at the other side, but it was locked. Ash twisted it further, but the door just wouldn't budge. Strange. After glaring at the door intensely for several seconds, he decided to let go of it and walked back to the commotion, Zeus waking by his side.

Ash felt a massive surge of relief when he saw Gary and Lieutenant Surge appear on the corridor. His shoulders sagged and he felt like he was going to cry yet again, but his didn't want to seem weak in front of his friends.

It was evident that Surge and Gary had just woken up. The boy's hair was all over the place and drool stuck to the side of his mouth, while Surge green vest was inside out. But both of their eyes were wide and alert. Gary recoiled and clutched his chest when he saw the corpse and blood on the floor, while Surge's eyes widened briefly in shock and horror at the scene.

The gym leader snarled and cracked his knuckles when he saw the Rockets sprawled on the ground. "You weren't joking around, Ketchum," he growled in a menacing voice.

"Holy shit," Gary muttered, his voice a whisper. "That guy...he's..."

"Don't look, kid," Surge said solemnly. "Don't look."

Surge flexed his arms as he approached the two men with unrestrained dogma, wanting to give the restrained Rockets absolute hell. Ash averted his eyes, called off Hydrus and Delphi and stared at the sailor's body in disgust as he heard unending cries of pain from the interrogated Rocket.

"There's nothing you can do, Ash," Gary muttered, a similar expression on his face. "He's gone."

"Gah!" the Rocket exclaimed in pain as Surge stretched his arm and smashed it halfway along the ulna, and the bone snapped into two. "My...my arm—!"

"Tell me where it is!" Surge bellowed, punctuating his order with a powerful jab to the gut, which caused the Rocket to cough up a clod of blood. " _Now_!"

"I-I-I swear, I d-don't kn-know!" The Rocket grunted as Surge punched him yet again.

"What do you know then?" Surge asked in a dangerously soft voice.

The Rocket shivered in fear. "N-Not much," he admitted, "except that the ship'll explode in about th-thirty minutes. I swear, that's all I know, I swear!"

With an impassive expression, the buff gym leader drove his powerful fist straight into the Rocket's face. There was a crack as the fist connected with he nose, shattering it, then the criminal slumped to the ground, a bloody mess as his eyes rolled into the back of his head. Surge glared at the pair of them before releasing his Raichu and ordering it to paralyse them with Thunder Wave.

The giant watched in satisfaction as his mouse released twin lances of electricity from its cheeks, which struck the unconscious Rockets with precision and froze their limbs. Raichu snickered before launching itself upwards with its powerful tail, landing gracefully on Surge's shoulder.

"Let's go," he grunted. "We're done here. We've gotta get everyone off this ship."

Gary blinked. "But what's going on—"

"There is a bomb on this ship, Gary Oak!" Surge snapped. He looked absolutely furious and disgusted. "It's gonna explode in thirty minutes and kill everyone on the St Anne if we're not fast enough."

"But—"

"No buts!" the lieutenant barked. "With every passing second, we get closer to being blown to bits! As for these two..." He sighed in frustration. "These men made their choice. We can't save them."

Ash gulped. He didn't know what to say. As he saw the two paralysed Rockets frozen on the ground, he almost – _almost_ – fell sorry for them, but then thoughts of them committing countless heinous crimes wiped out all pity forming in his body. Their fates were sealed.

He looked at Gary. He had no doubt that his rival was undergoing the same mental torture as him. Their innocence had been utterly contaminated by the brutal murder they'd just seen. This wasn't something a boy his age should be exposed to. He would be scarred for life.

And he could already feel his senses dulling as the smell of blood kept getting to him no matter how hard he tried to ignore it...

He was quiet as they made their way away from the scene. Surge was muttering to himself, the tendons in his neck stretched like bridge cables as their little group cautiously walked along one of the ship's many corridors. Gary kept fidgeting with his pokeballs and pulling at the straps of his backpack. The two boys were deathly pale and couldn't believe the situation they were in. This was a nightmare.

The ship was oddly quiet, which was strange since the St Anne was supposed to be staffed and serviced 24/7. Ash couldn't help but frown when he saw the front desk unmanned. Right now, Ash was willing to pay good money to even see Giselle or Lord Rutledge—

He winced and clamped his hands on his ears as the ship's speakers suddenly screeched, a noise that went on for a solid ten seconds. He glared up at the nearest one, Gary doing the same while Surge looked around cautiously, his Raichu's cheeks sparking. There were a few thuds as whoever was on the other end tapped the mic, then a familiar voice began to speak.

"Greetings, everyone. This is Team Rocket Executive Proton. How d'you do?"

Ash's blood ran cold. He had no doubt that every passenger, crew and guest was awake right now, listening as their bodies shook in fear.

"I know it isn't nice to wake up so early," he drawled, "but I must tell you that it's for your own good. We have taken over the St Anne and members of our charming organisation will be stripping you of any valuables you have. Should you attempt to resist, you will be killed without a second thought. If you want to get off his vessel alive, please comply to our demands and board the nearest lifeboat without dilly-dallying very quickly, 'cause this ship's gonna blow up in the next...twenty-two minutes. Ciao!"

Proton cackled in sadistic glee before the speakers cut off. Ash grew very, very still. Four seconds. Five.

Then all hell broke loose.

The overhead lights of the central Hall blazed, illuminating the lobby as hundreds of people streamed out of their rooms, screaming and shrieking at the top of their lungs as they tried to reach the lifeboats, each one caring only about their own lives. Ash felt anger explode in his chest as he saw a few men and women in black jumpsuits laughing in sadistic glee as they saw the passengers run helter-skelter around them. One Rocket pulled out a baton which flared with electricity a second later, then swung it at a passing boy, catching the child under the chin and knocking him down while the assailant cackled even wilder.

Surge roared. Ash glanced at the enraged man as he felt a whirl of emotions: panic, anger, fear, worry, to name a few. "We need to save them!" he yelled.

Surge didn't need to be told twice. As Raichu jumped off his shoulder, he snagged at the pokeballs on his belt, tapping the releases a second later. His pokémon materialised in front of him and formed a defensive wall as Ash took a few seconds identifying them: Electivire, Magneton and Jolteon.

"Listen up!" he barked, gaining the electric-types' attention. "You know who the Rockets are." Electivire smashed his fists together in anger, while Jolteon's fur fluffed up until it looked twice its size and snarled menacingly. "Don't kill, just restrain them with Thunder Wave. If they attack any of the passengers, save them first. On, and don't hold back if they send out their pokémon."

With that his pokémon (except for Magneton) set off. Electivire barrelled at the Rockets, his fists flaring with electricity in an attempt to intimidate, while Jolteon and Raichu blurred away with incredible speed. Magneton hovered around Surge, first setting up a Light Screen and a Barrier, followed by Reflect. The three wondrous walls of light fused together, forming a translucent projection that was little less than a Protect.

Surge glanced at Ash and Gary. "What're you two doing?" he bellowed. "Get to safety! Head for the lifeboats!"

"We're not leaving you!" Ash yelled back, releasing the rest of his pokémon, who took their positions next to Delphi, Hydrus and Zeus, albeit a little confused. Chimchar immediately climbed Ash's back while Saur growled deeply when he recognized the Rockets.

"They're Rockets, the ones I told you about," he told his friends as Gary released his own team. Luna tittered, looking a bit uncertain. "We need to help everyone get off the ship. There's a bomb on board – and we'll all die if we don't make it out on time."

Hydrus quacked determinedly, his psychic glow never fading. Delphi unfurled her wings and glared across the massive, central hall, where Surge's pokémon were making quick work of the Rockets. In fact, in a few more moments there would be no need for Ash and his team to help.

Surge groaned. "Listen, kid, I appreciate your help, but you don't know what you're dealing with. It's Team Rocket, not some bloody cartoon show—"

"I know what they're capable of," Ash snapped, unconsciously rubbing the spot around his shoulder where Proton's Ariados had stung him. "I was there when they were in Mt Moon." Surge's eyes widened briefly at that, but he didn't say anything and looked away.

"Hey, you! Hand over your pokémon!"

Ash scowled when he whirled around and saw a group of Rockets sneering at him. He did a quick headcount – there were approximately thirty of them, each having at least two pokeballs on their belts. They would be tough to beat, that was for sure, but Ash knew that his pokémon were ready.

They had to be.

"Listen kid," the head grunt said. "Return your monsters and hand 'em over. You don't want to face our wrath."

Ash glared. "Piss off."

The head grunt snapped at his squadron. "Kill him!"

There were several flashes of light following this statement as the Rockets released their pokémon. As saw a ridiculous number of Zubat, six Golbat, a few Koffing, as well as Rattata and Raticate and the odd Sandshrew. Nothing his team couldn't handle.

Ash immediately began issuing orders. "Saur, take out the Zubat with your vines. Delphi, you and Hydrus go for the Golbat. Zeus and Chimchar, attack the rest. Luna, you stay with me."

"Pidgeotto, help Xatu," Gary commanded in a surprisingly calm voice. "Wartortle, knock out the grunts with Rapid Spin. Machop, Growlithe and Raticate, pick off any stragglers. Nidorina and Drowzee, cover my ass."

The crew of pokémon replied with a cacophony of aggressive sounds as they leered at the Rockets. Ash glanced at Surge, whose Magneton was holding its own against twenty Rocket pokémon, one at a time. "Go!"

With a furious shriek, Delphi surged at her opponents, spreading her wings wide as they glowed metallic silver. She slammed the wings into the unfortunate Golbat who were facing her, knocking the two nocturnal pokémon to the ground before lunging at the pair once again to deliver another Steel Wing. The bats screeched as they saw the Xatu advancing at them, and managed to avoid her return attack, but shrieked in pain as Gary's Pidgeotto gave a Steel Wing of his own.

Saur unleashed a barrage of vines, snagging the number of Zubat that were flailing aimlessly in the air. It was apparent that they were newly-caught, since the Ivysaur's Vine Whips one-shotted them into unconsciousness. He was especially good at grabbing two of them and repeatedly slamming them into unconsciousness while Gary's Raticate helped him occasionally.

Growlithe kept bathing his enemies in rivers of fire to keep enemies at bay while Chimchar aided him in his task by taking on anyone that came close. Ash was momentarily pleased to see how powerful the chimp was, despite his size. He kept slashing his opponents ruthlessly and also Flame Charging a few occasionally.

The best sight was of Wartortle slamming into the Rocket grunts with her shell. The turtle kept spinning at the criminals with incredible speed, bouncing from grunt to grunt and knocking them to the ground. Ash grimaced when he saw a few of the Rockets sporting bloody mouths and broken noses, but they deserved it.

A few of the Rockets, after realising that they were loosing, brought out weapons of their own – electric batons – and attacked Ash's and Gary's teams on their own. Panic welled up in Ash's heart as he saw a man swing his electrified weapon at Saur, but thankfully Raticate jumped in the way, taking the brunt of the attack. The rodent shrieked in pain as electricity flared around his body, and Ash noticed Gary's eyes widen in fear – but Saur saved his comrade by grabbing hold of the man's wrist and redirecting the baton to his chest, where it pumped a devastating amount of electricity into the Rocket's body and blew the criminal to the ground.

Some of the enemy pokémon had managed to break through the defences, and Ash and Gary wouldn't have been alive if it hadn't been for Luna, Nidorina and Drowzee. The trio of girls retaliated with all the strength they had. Drowzee stopped a Koffing in its tracks with Psychic, and held it in the air for Nidorina, who smashed it into the ground with an Iron Tail. An enemy Golbat lunged at Drowzee, baring its fangs to deliver a Leech Life, but blasted it with Disarming Voice and Sing before thrashing it with Wake-Up Slap. The force was enough to knock it out, but its situation had been worsened when Nidorina Double Kicked it into the ground, where it received a final Psybeam that put it out of its misery.

But their problems were far from over. The Rockets had been joined by yet more of their gang, whose attention had been redirected by the great commotion they were causing. Their forces seemed unending and there seemed to be two pokémon appearing for every enemy they defeated. His pokémon were tired; they couldn't go on forever. Saur let loose an Energy Ball, which slammed into a Zubat, knocking it to the ground before he caught an advancing Rocket by wrapping three vines around the knee. The saurian lifted the grunt off the ground, spinning him in the air before launching him at the rest of the criminals, at whom he hurtled at the speed of a blazing comet, resulting in a sprawling heap of bodies.

"Oak, Ketchum, close your eyes!" Surge yelled suddenly.

"What?!" Ash yelled back, confused. "Why—"

"Just do it!" Surge cut off, as Jolteon rushed back at its trainer, fur crackling with electricity. "Flash!" he ordered the electric-type canine.

Ash immediately understood what Surge was doing and snapped his eyes close, covering his eyes with his arms as Gary did the same. There was a blinding flare of light a split-second later, followed by screams and bellows of pain from everyone around them. The Flash was so powerful that, even though he'd shielded his eyes, Ash could still see spots in front of his eyes.

"Magneton, Protect!" There was a whirr as Magneton projected his energy, producing a dome like barrier that separated Ash, Gary, Surge and their pokémon from the Rockets and their teams. "Discharge, Mk two – aim for the Rockets!"

There was a piercing howl as Jolteon stood on top of the emerald dome. Its fur was practically blazing as its electrical organs began working overtime before it let loose a flare of electricity. Streaks of lightning shot out in every direction, aimed precisely at the Rockets and their pokémon, who received the literal shocks of their lives. Jolteon kept using the powerful attack for five solid seconds before shutting it down.

The central hall was completely devastated. The smoking forms of black-clad grunts lay on the ground, piled up along with their defeated pokémon. Miraculously, the few remaining passengers in the hall were safe, although they were absolutely shaken. Surge's Electivire and Raichu had been hit by the attack, but they seemed more powerful than ever.

The Protect faded and Jolteon fell straight into Surge's arms. The giant petted Jolteon, who seemed _exhausted_. "Sorry, 'bout that," he said gruffly. "Mk two drains Jolteon out – she isn't used to using directing the electricity through the plasma in the air, so I only use that as a last resort."

Ash frowned. "Okay, but you could've used it at the start and saved us a whole lot of trouble," he grumbled.

The man shrugged. "Like I said, I only use that as a last resort. Come on, let's go. We've got to get to the lifeboats quickly...assuming they haven't all already left."

That didn't brighten things up, but Ash was desperate to do anything to get off this ship. He didn't even bother about the Rockets on the floor as they trudged towards the spiralling staircases that would lead them to the deck – Ash just stepped on any Rocket that came in his path.

Ash recalled his pokémon, but kept Delphi and Hydrus out. He felt a surge of gratitude towards the pair for warning him earlier today and wanted them to be with him, at least until they all were safe. They'd helped in saving countless lives – lives to would've been destroyed if they hadn't taken appropriate action.

They ran up the stairs as quickly as they could and made it onto the deck. There were countless passengers scrambling to get onto the lifeboats, wailing and screaming and crying in despair while crewmen did their best to calm them down. Thankfully, there were no Rockets in the area, but it didn't make the situation any less tense.

Ash heaved a sigh of relief. They were going to be safe. He whirled around and smiled at Gary and Surge, but his face faltered...

...when half a dozen Rockets poured onto the deck, their hands filled with pokeballs.

The passengers erupted into screams once again as they took in the sudden appearance of the Rockets, who grinned with sadistic glee, feeding off the fear of their victims. They fiddled with their pokeballs, their insanity showing clearly on their faces, forming a semicircle on the deck. The fleeing passengers watched, frozen, as they waited for the Rockets to make the first move.

"You two go. I'll hold them off," Surge growled, his pokémon taking stances in front of him. "Get to safety."

"While I have no doubt that you're strong, Lieutenant Jefferson, I hardly doubt your monsters will be a match for me."

Ash felt his head whirl as he saw the wall of Rockets part, revealing Admin Proton swaggering lazily to the front. He had an infuriatingly arrogant smirk on his face, which bore a thin, white scar that ran right above his right eye.

"Why don't we find out, scum?!" Surge bellowed, anger pulsing through his veins. "Magneton, Raichu, Electivire, Jolteon, Fearow, don't hold back! We just need to hold them off until everyone is off the ship!"

"Not everyone," Ash hissed, standing right alongside the gym leader, feeling a sense of moral obligation to help his friend in the battle. "I'm with you, Surge."

"You outta your mind, Ketchum?" Surge's eyes were wide, a vein on his forehead bulging at Ash's idiocy. "I thought you knew what Team Rocket is capable of! They're men...and you're only a child."

Ash scowled. "There is no 'I' in 'team', Surge!"

"Yeah, but there's no 'U' in 'team' either!" the war hero countered, looking furious. "So if I'm not on this team, and you're not on this team, then nobody's on this motherfuckin' team! 'Cause there is no team! Ya hear me?!"

"Oh, you two fight like a well-oiled fighting machine!" Proton aww'd mockingly. "Now, if you two are done, can we go at it? Bloody waves are making me sick."

Ash glanced at his rival. "Gary, are you with me or not?"

"Ash, you..." Gary gulped, looking conflicted between getting to safety and helping his friend, before he finally groaned in frustration. "Fine, Ketchum! But if we die, I'm going to kill you!"

The boy released his team, all the while muttering words like 'suicide' and 'stupid'. They quickly joined ranks with Ash's team, encircling the boys as they faced off against the Rockets, who released monsters of their own.

There wasn't much time before they'd be blown sky high...

"Ketchum, Oak, take down the grunts." Surge spoke calmly, although his rage hadn't lessened. "Once you're done, leave the admin up to me and get to safety on my Fearow. You don't have a say in it."

"But—"

"For once in your life, Ketchum, listen to me!" Surge practically roared, flecks of spit flying at Ash. "I may be stupid enough to allow a couple of ten-year-olds to help me battle criminals, but I cannot compromise your safety! You understand me?!"

Ash nodded, a bit scared. Surge was terrifying – even the grunts looked like they were ready to piss themselves, even though the giant's anger was not directed at them – yet. Once he was satisfied, he turned back onto the grunts, who were glancing at Proton for a single word of command.

Proton smirked. "You can let the children go, Surge, but there's no way you're leaving this boat alive unless you give us what we came here for."

Surge tensed. "For what?" he probed tentatively, dreading the answer.

His smirk grew wider. "The pokémon energy amplifier."

Surge's eyes bulged and his expression contorted, as he unconsciously gripped the fanny-pack around his waist. "How did you—"

"Team Rocket isn't the biggest criminal syndicate in the world for nothing," Proton said, his tongue moistening his lips. "We have spies everywhere – including the League. Of course, our henchmen aren't high enough to gain enough secrets, but whatever knowledge we receive is enough for us to carry out operations to gain more power. But enough of that; where was I? – oh, yes – hand over that nifty little device of yours, Lieutenant," he threatened, "and maybe, just maybe, I'll let you run away with your tail between your legs."

Surge scowled. "Over my dead body."

At that, Proton grinned sadistically. "Excellent," he hissed. He took a pair of pokeballs from his belt, enlarging his devices as he prepared to release the contents. Ash knew only of Ariados, Jolteon and Houndoom, but he had no doubt that the Rocket executive had other monstrously powerful pokémon on his arsenal.

The Rocket tossed them in the air, where the spheres snapped open, sending forth beams of white light and energy that coalesced into the monsters. One of them was a Houndoom, but the other one was a surprise for Ash. It had thick, rugged, purple plates of armour and grey ones covering its chest. An immense, powerful tail sprouted from its exterior and a terrifyingly sharp horn jutted out of its forehead. A Nidoking. The hulking behemoth stood nearly six feet tall, almost as tall as Surge's Electivire, although it held a lot more bulk.

Surge smirked. "Two against five?" he mocked. "Looks like this is going to be an easy one."

"So let's level the playing field, shall we?"

Surge frowned when he heard an unfamiliar voice interrupt his conversation. Looking up, he noticed the stranger on the third deck floor – a tall, lean figure leaning on a railing, staring icily down at them. His skin was pale, showing that he had rarely spent time outside, and although he wasn't buff like Surge, he had a muscular, athletic build. He wore a pure white suit, immaculate and clean, with a black breast pocket that had a crimson R stitched on it. His hair colour, an unusual teal, matched Proton's, but otherwise the pair of them were as alike as chalk and cheese.

Proton grinned foxily at his accomplice. "Finally you're here!" he yelled. "What took your fat-ass so long, Archer?"

Archer ignored him, continuing to stare at Surge. "You heard what Proton told you," he said, "but I will say it again. Hand over the pokémon energy amplification device, and you will be rewarded with your life."

"In your adolescent dreams," Surge snapped back.

The executive stared impassively for a second before smoothly tapping the releases on three pokeballs, sending forth a Victreebel, a Persian, and a monstrous creature Ash recognized as a fabled Tyranitar – the Johto equivalent of a Dragonite. Ash shouldn't have been surprised that Archer had a Tyranitar at his disposal – the Rocket organisation had a nexus of contacts through which they procured an illegal number of pokémon every day – but it must've been more powerful than the average of its species, what with the drugs and twisted experiments it had been the victim of.

Surge steeled himself at the appearance of the ginormous Tyranitar, which stood over eight feet tall, easily dwarfing Electivire and Proton's Nidoking. The powerful rock-type shook the air with a roar that paralleled savagery, locking its merciless eyes onto Surge's electric-types.

Ash glared at the Rocket grunts, who cracked their knuckles. "Go!" he barked at his team.

Proton snorted, hissing one word: "Kill."

Nidoking and Tyranitar bellowed in tandem, as they began to charge across the deck, their powerful tails pulverising pool chairs like they were made of paper. Victreebel gurgled before hopping along with its comrades, concocting poison in its body as it prepared to spit it at unfortunate victims. Persian's elegant frame took a single, smooth step forward; then it was off, blurring towards Surge and Ash and Gary with incredible speed, Houndoom following it a second later.

Electivire bellowed in rage, its horns sparking as it crouched down, then pushed itself forwards like a bullet with its powerful legs. Raichu and Jolteon slipped into Agility as they zigzagged their way towards their foes, determined to crush them, while Magneton formed the same Light Screen/Reflect/Barrier technique before floating around Ash and Gary in order to protect the children from stray attacks.

The rest of the Rocket grunts yelled in glee before their pokémon charged Ash's and Gary's, whose teams braced themselves for the oncoming onslaught.

Saur triggered Chlorophyll with the help of the rising sun and then darted at the motley crew of Rocket pokémon with double his usual speed, Gary's Raticate at his side. The Ivysaur quickly snagged a Golbat out of the air and restrained it, allowing his comrade to leap at it and sink his large fangs into the bat's stomach. The Golbat shrieked in pain as Raticate ruthlessly shook it in his mouth, the power of Hyper Fang too much for it and its body went limp, after which Raticate spat it on the ground, his sharp teeth dripping with blood. The rodent looked absolutely menacing, but he was right in his element.

Delphi and Pidgeotto took to the air in a flash, allowing a horde of Zubat, lead by another Golbat, to chase them relentlessly. The pair of avians danced around each other, avoiding countless Bites when they allowed the enemies to come close. Their manoeuvres were so complex and synchronised that several Zubat knocked each other out by accidentally slamming into each other and fighting against their own.

A thin lance of electricity ploughed into an enemy Houndour, causing the dark-type to yowl painfully. Zeus bleated happily at his handiwork as the Houndour hit the deck, twitching painfully as its limbs froze from the surprise Thunder Wave, but before it could even register what had happened, Machop lunged at it and threw a glowing white fist straight into the canine's gut. It shrieked in pain, and a second later Zeus twisted his body, swinging his Iron Tail straight between Houndour's eyes. The force was enough to partially punch Houndour's skull through the wooden floor and there was no doubt about its unconscious state.

Hydrus and Growlithe were following a similar pattern to Zeus and Machop – while the Flaaffy caught opponents off-guard with Thunder Wave, which allowed Machop a few moments to knock it out, Hydrus kept immobilising enemies with Disable and allowed Growlithe to assault them viciously until they were defeated. Ash didn't know when the Psyduck's psychic outburst would shut off, but the boy was glad it wasn't now.

Ferroseed, Luna, Chimchar, Nidorina, Drowzee and Wartortle were aimlessly steamrolling the remaining enemies. They were certainly strong on their own, but together they were practically unstoppable. Drowzee trapped foes with Psychic, Wartortle pinball-ed her way through with Rapid Spin, Chimchar Flame Charged anyone who had the misfortune of coming in his path, Ferroseed unleashed a barrage of Energy Balls, Luna ruthlessly pummelled her enemies while used all her attacks randomly. They pushed the enemy back while Magneton hovered around Ash and Gary, protecting them from attacks with its Light Screen/Reflect/Barrier combo move while also keeping Proton's Nidoking at a distance with an unending barrage of Flash Cannons.

But if their petty squabble was impressive, then Surge and the Rocket executives were battling like gods. Shockwaves pulsed through the air every few seconds as two pokémon clashed, while the occasional stray attack ripped the air and threatened to grievously injure the unfortunate victim. Electivire and Tyranitar were duking it out in the middle of a pool, limbs flying in blurs as they slashed and punched at each other with enough force to pulverise stone. Yellow fur was pulled out and sage green armour began to scratch and dent as the two monsters put all their strength in the barrage of attacks – both of them were ridiculously powerful, and were determined to show the world who was superior.

Suddenly, Electivire's fur exploded with power as it stomped the ground, causing electricity to engulf the entire deck – Electric Terrain. Raichu snickered as it received a boost of power from the enhancing move and Electivire roared before slamming an electrified fist into Tyranitar's chest. The titanic rock-type roared in pain and annoyance as a thin crack spread from the point of impact and it was pushed a couple of feet away from the force behind the Thunder Punch, but it still had enough energy left in it to go on.

Raichu took on Archer's Persian and began giving it absolute hell. The feline was powerful, there was no doubt about that, but Raichu was so fast that it hadn't landed even a single hit. The electric-type kept dancing around the massive cat's feet, giving it a Thunderbolt for its trouble every few other moment, bringing Persian closer and closer to finally snapping. It didn't help that the Electric Terrain had given the rodent a significant boost, which meant that it would only be a matter of moments before the cat would be taken down.

Jolteon's opponent was Houndoom. The dark-type was as savage as when Ash had seen it in Mt Moon. Flecks of spit flew at the air whenever it took a break from firing Flamethrowers at its opponent, who was having a tough time due to being half-exhausted from using the Discharge variance earlier. Jolteon panted, tired, before darting around a river of fire and clamping its powerful, electrified fangs onto Houndoom's neck. The dark-type howled in fury and charged at a wall, sandwiching Jolteon between Houndoom and the wall as it crashed into the obstruction. With it momentarily stunned, Houndoom seized its chance, its claws flashing black with the power of Foul Play, and it slashed its talons at Jolteon's flank, drawing blood while Jolteon passed out.

Not ten feet away, Surge's Fearow's whole body suddenly was spinning and then it dove at Victreebel before it could react. The impact of the Drill Run sent the grass-type sprawling and it gurgled in pain from the super-effective attack, but it couldn't strike back as the avian retreated back into the skies before it knew it.

Victreebel gurgled as Fearow circled it in the air, searching for an opening. The raptor's eyes flashed before spiralling in for another Drill Run, one that would hopefully knock it out, but just as Fearow came in range, a cloud of spores was released from Victreebel's circular mouth. The flying-type knocked its opponent out, but with a price – its body shuddered and a weary look appeared in its eyes as debilitating poison was pumped into its bloodstream.

Surge was getting as physical as his pokémon. The giant of a man bellowed "Eat this!" before punching his way through three Rocket grunts, who were knocked back by the brute force packed behind the punch. A dozen Rockets screamed in fear as Surge appeared in front of them, replacing the monsters of their nightmares. Within moments, the gym leader had made quick work of the grunts, who lay sprawled in a heap after being on the receiving end of his brutal techniques.

"There are only a few minutes until this ship goes down, Surge!" Proton called, his entire form radiating frustration. "Give us the device or your fate will be sealed!"

Raichu changed its target to Houndoom as soon as Persian fell unconscious, darting at the dark-type with its tail glowing silver. Houndoom snarled, breathing a torrent of flames at the advancing rodent, but Raichu pushed itself up and leapt over the Flamethrower. The electric-type landed on Houndoom's head, which it used as a launching platform to lunge in the air, where it unleashed a bolt of lightning and electrocuted Houndoom. The demonic beast howled furiously in pain and anger, its head whipping into the air just as an Iron Tail smashed between its eyes.

Ash stomped his foot in satisfaction as the last of the Rocket grunts' pokémon were sent flying by a powerful Scald from Wartortle, utterly unconscious. He turned at his rival, grinning; they'd won!

"You're going – now!" Surge suddenly bellowed at the duo as he realised there were only Tyranitar, Nidoking and Houndoom left to battle. Magneton whirred as its trainer snapped his fingers, and the cluster of Magnemite darted towards Nidoking, who was laying waste to the ship's deck. "Recall your pokémon – your job is done."

Gary readily nodded, but Ash looked hesitant. "How will you—"

"I have Eelektross; she can levitate me back to the closest destination – Electivire!" Surge called out suddenly as he noticed Nidoking change targets, apparently deeming Magneton a waste of his time. The armour-clad beast roared wildly before firing a Hyper Beam that smote Electivire in the face, causing the enormous electric-type to caterwaul in fury and pain. Tyranitar grunted and made to fire a Hyper Beam at Electivire too, but Magneton quickly released a sphere of concentrated light and steel-type energy at the enraged rock-type, causing it to stagger back and roar as the Flash Cannon impacted its armoured chest.

Surge looked at the skies and whistled, causing his massive Fearow to immediately swoop down, although its eyes showed that it was tired from the toxins still flowing in its body. "Fearow, I need you to take these two with you." He pointed at Ash and Gary, who looked worried. "Go to the closest establishment you can sense – and make it snappy, 'cause I know you're poisoned. Got it?"

The bird shrieked in understanding, crouching low enough for Ash and Gary to climb onto its back. Fearow's body shuddered as it felt another blow from the poison, but it still had the will to go on.

"Go."

Ash held onto Fearow's long neck for dear life as the bird launched itself into the air with a powerful flap of its wings. He could hear the wind howling in his ears as Fearow went higher and higher, but swooped down suddenly as the poison struck it once again. His heart lurched; he felt like he was going to die, but Surge's flying-type received a boost of strength and then—

From somewhere below, he heard Proton scream in pure fury:

"Get that Fearow!"

And Ash knew why Proton was so determined to get hold of it; Surge had, around Fearow's neck, wrapped the fanny-pack which contained the pokémon energy amplification device.

He heard the distant, almost insignificant, sound of a pokémon being released, and he felt a surge of panic in his chest. Archer had released his fourth pokémon, a large bird with deep blue feathers and a breast of white – a Honchkrow.

The Honchkrow shrieked as it sped towards Fearow. Its eyes glowed menacingly and it radiated pure terror. The bird's wings glowed black with the power of Night Slash and Ash felt every muscle in Fearow's body tense like suspension cables; his grip around the bird's neck grew still tighter—

With a mighty shriek, Fearow's body suddenly spiralled at Honchkrow and he screamed in fear and pain as his insides slammed against his bones, threatening to burst free from his body—

A tremor surged through Fearow's body as its beak slammed into Honchkrow's breast, staining the pure-white feathers with blood. Honchkrow shrieked in pain, but managed to slash its wings at Fearow, earning a shudder as pain passed through the raptor. Ash and Gary kept hanging on for dear life, silent tears streaming down their faces as they tried to comprehend the criticality of the situation—

A flare of electricity, courtesy of Raichu, slammed into Honchkrow's body just as the dark-type bird made to attack Fearow once again. Honchkrow's eyes widened at its literal shock, before going still as its body spiralled to the never-ending expanse of water directly below them.

"Holy fucking shit!" Ash heard Gary scream below him.

Ash, through half-open eyes, could see the ongoing events play out on the deck of the St Anne – there were hundreds of people still on board, scrambling onto the lifeboats in a bid to save their lives while some wailed in despair – Archer and Proton had recalled their defeated pokémon and the former held out a pokeball, sending out an Abra. He saw Proton leer at Surge one last time before grabbing hold of the psi pokémon's arm along with Archer. Light enveloped them for a few seconds before they...vanished? How—

Ash mentally smacked himself; they'd teleported. Which meant...

Surge seemed to get it too, because he quickly returned his own pokémon before taking a running start on the deck, before leaping off the railing and cannonballing into the sea. There was a small splash – small from where Ash was watching – before the giant resurfaced, resting on his gigantic Eelektross, whose sucker sparked before racing away from the ship at top speed.

Then it happened.

Ash shielded his eyes by pressing his face into Fearow's neck just as the ship exploded, but that didn't stop his eardrums from almost being destroyed. The roar of the detonation was louder than anything he'd heard. Debris and chunks of the ship were projected into the air, and not a split-second later he felt a gust of nothing but pure heat rush over him. His mouth was opened in a scream from the pain as part of his skin burned, and—

Fearow's body was suddenly wracked with a violent tremor and the bird shrieked in agony as something slammed into its chest. Ash tightened his grip around the bird's neck and found out the object to be a particularly large and nasty chunk of steel blow away from the force of the explosion. Fearow grimaced as it struggled to stay airborne, but a whole minute after fighting for its breath, it gave way and they plummeted to the ground. Ash choked back a sob as he understood his fate, but took out Fearow's pokeball, which Surge had given him in case of an emergency. The bird didn't have to suffer a fate similar to theirs...

With not a second to lose, he pressed the ball against the exhausted bird, who was returned in a beam of red energy. Ash felt himself free-falling and he grabbed onto Gary, who seemed equally terrified and screamed as the ocean's surface hurtled towards them—

The only thing Ash knew after the whiteout of bubbles was pain.

His entire body arched the second he crashed into the ocean, his mouth open in a silent scream. The impact had momentarily knocked him out, but when the thirst for air got too much, his eyes snapped open and he struggled to the surface.

The second thing he felt was the drastic change in temperature. The water was absolutely freezing. Shocks of pain made his fingers go numb, slowly but steadily. The cold was the only thing keeping him awake right now.

His body was too sore to do anything. Maybe he could just sink to the bottom of the—

No. He would not go down so easily. He had his mom to think about, as well as Red and Professor Oak and also his pokémon. He would not give up on them so easily, dammit.

With a wince, he searched for Hydrus' pokeball and tapped the release, and was relieved when he saw the Psyduck appear in front of him. Hydrus looked surprised at his surrounding, eyes still glowing on account of the psychic outburst. Ash immediately put his arms on Hydrus, who tried to keep the both of them afloat while Ash held onto Gary.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit..." Gary muttered as he rapidly blinked out the water in his eyes.

"Ga...Gary," he said. "Send out Wartortle."

His rival immediately understood and his hands went under the water as he searched for the right pokeball, ignoring the coldness of the water. There was a muffled flash, and Wartortle burst from below. The cerulean blue turtle looked bewildered by the chaotic scene, but she didn't protest when Gary climbed onto her back.

"Wartortle, Hydrus," Ash said, ignoring the storm clouds brewing high up, "we need you to get us out of here. Please." He shakily switched the GPS function on his pokégear, which had thankfully survived the fall; Ash only hoped that the rest of his stuff had managed to remain unbroken too. He browsed through the map, his hair plastered to his face by the cold water of the ocean. "Head north, you two. We need to get to Cinnabar as fa—"

He was cut off as a massive wave crashed into him, pushing him underwater. He felt his lungs sting as he accidentally sucked in salt water, and he began writhing in pain. He could see Hydrus swirling a few feet away from him, being tossed around in his element as if he was a plaything, and although the Psyduck swam determinedly towards him, obviously wanting to grab him, Ash didn't. He was just too heavy.

But when he started feeling desperate, he gladly wrapped his arms around Hydrus' body, and the duck began pushing his webbed feet and stubby arms in an attempt to get his trainer to the surface; he quacked angrily at his inability to help his trainer, but he kept pushing determinedly towards the surface.

With the help of the roiling ocean, Ash and Hydrus broke through the suffocating water, and he greedily sucked in gallons of air even though his lungs burned by the effort. His eyes watered in pain, but he looked around in search for Gary and Wartortle. They weren't anywhere to be seen. Surely...

Then he saw the pair of them, resisting against the water, swimming towards Ash. Gary was holding onto Wartortle's tail as she cut through the water with her streamlined shell, wanting to keep the little group together.

The ocean began to swirl even further and further, the storm picking up its pace. He saw a spot in the distance, and he felt a glimmer of hope spark to life in his chest – it was a passing ship, one that had probably responded to the St Anne's SOS signals and helped saving the lives of many. He glanced at Hydrus, who was quacking continuously.

"Hydrus..." He coughed. "I – I need you to get me to the ship there. Signal Wartortle to follow you, please. We need to—"

Another wave forced him under the freezing water once again. Ash's limbs flailed aimlessly as he tried to reach for the surface once again, but his energy was being depleted by the second.

As his vision swam, he saw an incandescent white light illuminate the inky waters momentarily, but he hadn't the foggiest as to what it was. All he knew was that if it wasn't there to help, he was dead. He just hoped that whichever monster of the sea had come to devour him be done with it in a single chomp.

A strong, webbed hand caught hold of his arm and began pulling him with considerable ease. Could it...?

His vision suddenly flickered and it went black.

XxXxX

 **Hello, everyone! Sorry for the long break between this and the previous chapter, but I did kinda warn you guys that updates will be slow. I just finished with my first-term exams, which I dutifully studied for (cough, yeah right, cough) and they lasted for a little more than two weeks. Nevertheless, from now on I will strive to put up a monthly-update schedule, but it may change according to school or choir practice and other activities.**

 **As always, thank you for following, favourite-ing, reviewing and reading. I hope you enjoyed this chapter (you better enjoy 35,000 words *glares at you all*) as much as I did writing it. I was originally planning to split this up, but I didn't know where, so I just ended up writing this as one.**

 **Chimchar is one of my favorite pokémon and I wanted Ash to have it no matter what. Call it fan-pandering, but I don't care. The anime made Infernape into an even bigger badass.**

 **And I know that it's kinda Mary Sue-ish that Ash won, or that some of you might even think that I ripped off _Darkfire1220_ …but no. I'd planned Ash winning a tournament and receiving Chimchar in the early stages of _The Nomad_ , far before I'd even begun reading _Challenger_. So, yeah.**

 **The pokémon amplifier is based on the one in the manga albeit with major changes. Yes, it will play a minor role in Kanto, and a far more significant one in Johto. Oh…um, spoiler alert?**

 **Also, the gym leaders will play a more proactive role in the fic, too. Expect appearances from Misty every now and then (especially the Celadon and the Conference Arc), a far kinder and helpful Sabrina (albeit not to the point where it gets overly-nauseating), stuff like that. And have I told you that Surge is my favorite leader, right after Giovanni?**

 **Note: We're so close to 200 followers/favourites! Please make sure to do the like and tell me what your thoughts were in either a PM or a review.**

 **As always, thanks for reading!**


	8. The Juggernaut

_Chapter Eight: The Juggernaut_

He must've woken up several times before, but the memories made no sense.

The first time, Ash remembered his eyes blinking repeatedly as he looked straight into the face of a blue, duck-like creature, quacking frantically at him as he was pulled through the swirling ocean. He was so confused that it hardly took any time for him to go out cold.

After what seemed like a few seconds, he'd only been forced awake by pain as he continued drifting through the ocean. He remembered slamming into a slab of wood, which caused the sound of bones snapping. Fire shot up his right arm, and his eyes watered by the fierce sensation burning through his limb. His vision swimming from the agony, he passed out.

XxXxX

Ash snapped awake and closed his eyes almost immediately as bright light poured into them. A rather pungent odor pervaded his senses. He blinked rapidly as his swimming vision adjusted to the light for several long seconds before he could finally see properly. He looked around, registering his surroundings: he was in a hospital wing, with numerous cots and beds lining either side of the long room, each housing a person who seemed to be in terrible shape. Moans and wails shook the room as the victims complained about whatever terrible tragedy they'd gone through.

The next thing he registered was the throbbing sensation at his temples and the back of his head. Then, his aching limbs, stinging lungs, heavy eyelids and so much more. Every square inch of his body felt so sore and it made him want to go back to the darkness.

He tried to remember the events preceding him blacking out. His mind, still dazed, was a whirl of emotions as he plunged through the ocean of memories—

 _Ocean_.

His mind exploded as images tore through it like spears: the destruction of the St Anne, the Rockets, the bomb that illuminated the inky waters like a miniature sun, everything. He forced his eyes open and he clenched his fists as he remembered the mangled body of the sailor, drowning in a pool of his own blood—

He shut his eyes, unable to bear the pain.

He took slow breaths in an attempt to calm himself down, but still felt like puking. Once he was sure that he had control over his senses, he raised a trembling arm, wrapped in bandages, an action that prompted his body to wrack with nausea, and he immediately let his arm go limp on the cot.

Ash looked around to while away the time. Most of the people in the room were fast asleep – there were only three people apart from him who were awake right now, but they looked ready to pass out without a moment's hesitation.

"So!" a voice boomed a few feet away from Ash, making him flinch. "Finally decided to get up, have you?"

Ash's attention drifted towards a tall figure strutting towards him. The pirate – at least Ash assumed he was a pirate – was male, standing over six feet tall with ease, and his frame was massive, sporting broad shoulders and hard muscles. Spiraling up his arms were tattooed Gyarados, their maws open in unending snarls. The man wore dark blue pants, his exposed chest devoid of any hair. A scruffy, black beard was on his face and his hair was covered with a blue bandana, his skin the color of chocolate. He reminded the boy of a Surge that had spent a lax vacation at Acapulco.

The man grinned boisterously at Ash, his eyes cheery but a little downcast. He seated himself on a chair next to Ash's cot and tenderly placed a burly hand on his thigh. "Mornin'," he said brightly. Ash simply stared at him with bleary eyes, but the man wasn't fazed. "I guess you must be wonderin' what you're doin' here, huh?"

"Y-Yeah." He winced at his voice; it felt like he'd never used it before. "Who…who are you?" he asked suddenly. "And wh-where am I?"

"Guess I forgot me manners…" He chuckled for a few second and flashed a grin at Ash. "M'name's Archie Sullivan. I'm the captain of this ship – the Blue Pearl. Me vessel was headin' from Olivine to Vermillion when we heard that the St Anne was in distress, and, since we were closest to the site of the wreck, we took responsibility of recovering passengers. D'you mind tellin' me what happened? You're one of the few conscious witnesses right now."

He spoke slowly and calmly, allowing Ash to understand each and every word the man articulated, knowing that the boy was still recovering. Ash let the gears in his head whirr, clenching his fists again as the explosion of the St Anne rushed through his mind once more, before he answered.

"My pokémon woke me up at around three in the morning," he said. "They…sensed something and took me to the lowest level of the sh-ship. I encountered two Rockets there and stopped them," he continued, skimming over the part about the dead sailor, whose bloody body burned in his mind. "My pokémon stopped them and me and my friends found out that there was a bomb aboard. We headed to the top to warn people, but then Team Rocket announced their presence via the speakers."

He took a deep breath; his breaths were quick now. "We got onto the deck, but two admins stopped us – they were after Lieutenant Surge and—"

"The gym leader?" Archie interrupted sharply.

Ash nodded. "Yeah. Anyway, they wanted something from him—" he didn't dare tell Archie what it was, however kind the man was, since it was most likely League information, "—and then Surge fought them off while I escaped on his Fearow, but then the ship…It exploded."

He shut his eyes; the images of the remaining people on board being blown to bits was still painfully fresh in his mind. "Some people…they didn't…"

Archie rested his hand on Ash's shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "It's okay, son," he said simply.

There was a long pause before Ash spoke once again, his voice frantic and full of panic. "Where are my pokémon?" he demanded. "How long was I out? What happened to the ship? And my friend, Gary Oak? Is he o—"

Archie let go of the boy and held up the hand, before sighing resignedly. "You've been here a day, kid," he informed. "Although the St Anne sunk two days ago. You were found by one of our Sharpedo scouts and you've been resting here since, suffering mild burns and a broken arm. As for your pokémon, we recovered a full team of six along with a pokeball which is not registered to your account, but since it contains a Fearow it must belong to the lieutenant. Quite a motley crew you have." He chuckled lightly, patting Ash's thigh. "An Ivysaur, Xatu, Clefairy, Flaaffy, Chimchar and a Golduck? Never seen a team stranger than that, boy."

Ash simply stared into the distance before blinking as something Archie said dawned on him.

"You said I have a Golduck?" he asked, incredulous.

Archie nodded, suddenly grinning. "I guess your Psyduck evolved then, eh?" he said, probably as excited as the boy. Ash nodded, utterly enthralled by this piece of information. After weeks of hard work and sheer determination, his friend had evolved and grown stronger. He couldn't help but feel happy for Hydrus.

Archie drummed his fingers on the cot, lost in deep thought. "As for your friend Jerry—"

"Gary."

"—I must say that we don't have hold of him," he admitted solemnly. Ash felt his heart lurch as he heard this, his initial joy at Hydrus evolving fading in an instant; where was Gary?! He had Wartortle with him, dammit! If Hydrus could find the strength to evolve just to save his trainer, Wartortle could, and would do the same, if not more, for Gary!

Archie sighed. "Truth be told, we've only found a few lifeboats and there are a lot still unaccounted for. Many people were lost in the wreck – we've found only north of a hundred-fifty survivors since the vessel's been destroyed. Who knows how many pokémon were lost?"

A void of despair and hopelessness burst to life in the pit of his stomach as he heard Archie talk. Only a little over a hundred and fifty survivors. The St Anne was ginormous, capable of holding a vast amount of people, and just a handful had survived this terrifying tragedy. Not to mention the thousands upon thousands of pokémon that had perished along with their trainers. This was a nightmare.

How could such a thing happen? How could the world be so cruel, so unpredictable? Thousands of faces flashed through his mind – Giselle, Arthur Rutledge, the sailor who'd welcomed him onto the ship – and the thought of these faces never smiling, or laughing, or even crying anymore, made him sick.

His face bent in sorrow and regret. But there was also anger – anger towards the people who'd commandeered this terrible event.

 _Team Rocket_.

 _Team Rocket_ was the cause for this. _Team Rocket_ was the one who'd shredded his innocence like paper, the one who exposed him to things so abominable that he'd never be the same. And they were the ones who'd invoked is rage.

And, one day, they would pay.

"I'm sorry," Archie said sincerely.

Ash simply stared ahead numbly. Then, after a painful silence, he asked urgently, "My pokémon?"

Archie nodded. "They were healed up in a jiffy," the captain said, "although that Fearow took some time to heal – the toxins had spread throughout her body and she was half-dead when we brought her in.

"Anyways, they'll be fine – pokémon are a hardy species. Those guys can recover from almost anything. I wouldn't worry if I were you," he reassured.

Ash nodded slowly. At least his friends were okay.

They sat in silence for several more minutes before Archie sighed, extending a muscly arm over to the table to grab a small, smoking goblet filled with a clear liquid. He lifted it and gave it a few shakes before handing it over to Ash.

"What…What's that?" he asked apprehensively, eyeing the liquid with some amount of suspicion.

"Drink. All of it," Archie ordered, which caused Ash to raise an eyebrow, and the man rolled his eyes. "I'm not drugging you, boyo. This'll help ease the pain and also give you a long sleep, which I'm afraid all of us need quite a lot of. Now, drink."

Ash complied, and he was surprised to find that the concoction didn't taste unpleasant at all. It was cloyingly sweet, but nothing like the medicinal potions to which he had grown accustomed, and before he knew it, he'd fallen fast asleep.

XxXxX

Two days later, the Sapphire Drift made port in Vermillion.

Ash and dozens of others were immediately transferred to a hospital, where doctors and nurses attended to his injuries. He had mild burns over his exposed skin due to his close proximity when the explosion occurred, and a snapped radius due to crashing arm-first into a floating piece of deck while still in the ocean, but other than that there was nothing major.

While his pokémon were up and ready, he still hadn't received news about Gary, despite constantly asking dozens of officials and reporters that had been swarming his hospital room, asking for a statement until the nurse had barred anyone other than hospital personnel from entering his room. He was worried for his rival, and even more worried about Professor Oak's and his mom's reactions on the event.

After two whole days at the hospital, he'd received a fine surprise. His mom and Red had suddenly barged into the room and pulled him into such a fierce hug that two nurses and a doctor had been forced to rip them apart. Delia had cried for almost an hour before calming down, although she still seemed worried about her youngest son.

He still couldn't get his pokémon into the room, since they had to properly clean them, vaccinate them and do all sorts of things that would prevent them from passing on bacteria on anything that could be harmful to the people in the hospital.

He spent most of his time talking to Red and his mom, who were both by his side. Red was there for several hours, but Delia was nearly omnipresent. They'd booked a hotel room in Vermillion City so that they could stay with Ash until the hospital released him. Delia might as well have been his personal nurse, although she left things like the bedpan and other stuff for the actual nurse to do.

Ash sighed as his mother once again placed a hand on his cheek as soon as she sat down next to him. She and Red had arrived rather late – it was already past lunchtime. "How are you feeling today, sweetie?" she asked tenderly.

"Fine," Ash told her. He glanced at the thick, white cast on his right arm, which still throbbed occasionally.

"It's good that you're feeling better," Red said. "Although I still can't believe you did that."

Ash sighed. That was half of what he'd heard whenever he'd met his family ever since he'd been forced to tell them a detailed description of the events aboard the St Anne. While his mother had been furious when he'd told her that he'd battled Rockets, her worry over her injured son had quickly obliterated any anger for him.

"Why don't you watch some TV, honey?" Delia suggested, placing the remote in his left hand as soon as she switched said device on. "We'll be back; we just have to call Samuel and check on Gary."

Ash nodded. Then it hit him. "Gary?" he exclaimed. "When did Gary – I thought he was dead!"

His mother laughed, although she paled slightly when he said the last word. "He was found at a small town in one of the Seafoam Islands," she informed. "Washed up on the shore with his Wartortle. Samuel received news about it yesterday night; he, Blue and Daisy went as soon as they heard."

Ash hummed as he processed her words. While he was a little miffed and surprised to find that the three remaining Oaks hadn't come to visit him, he'd been understanding when Delia had told him that they'd been in shock at the sudden tragedy, especially since Gary's own parents had died in an volcanic eruption on Kindle Island eight years ago.

"At least he's safe," Ash murmured.

Delia smiled softly at him, squeezing his shoulder slightly. "Don't worry, Ashy," she said. "We're all safe. When I saw the news…I didn't know if I was going to see you again…"

Ash looked at her, realizing that her entire body was trembling. He could only imagine how terrified she must've been when she heard about the destruction of the St Anne.

She pulled him into one of her signature hugs once again, which lasted for several seconds before she let go of him. She ran her hand along his face one last time before she and Red rose from their seats. "We'll come back in some time, okay?" Red said.

He sighed when the Delia closed the door behind them, and focused onto the ridiculous rom-com playing on the TV. Hopefully it would be uninteresting enough to make him fall asleep.

XxXxX

"So this is your team, huh?" Red mused once six beams of white light materialized into pokémon. "I haven't seen a stranger group than this, to be frank…"

Ash chuckled as Chimchar immediately bounded straight for him. "A lot of people have told me that," he replied.

Delia and Red just watched as Ash's team of six swarmed him out of both relief and happiness. Ash grinned, ecstatic at the sight of his friends, who'd been his family ever since he'd left home more than two months ago.

Saur grunted softly and butted his head lightly against Ash's side. The boy barked a laugh before scratching his best friend's jaw, which trembled slightly as the Ivysaur closed his eyes, pleased at the gesture. Ash smiled as the bud on his back began secreting a light, yet pleasant, aroma in an attempt to ease everyone in the room.

Zeus and Luna stood by his bed, eying him nervously. It was only when Ash pulled them in closer that they loosened up and became as cheery as Chimchar and Saur.

Delphi was, predictably, staring at him with impassive eyes. She looked into his eyes for a few seconds before breaking off, choosing to stare at something else mundane. Ash didn't know what was wrong with her, but he intended to find out quickly before her social skills deteriorated.

The real surprise was Hydrus, who looked drastically different from his usual self – which wasn't a surprise, considering his sudden evolution (Ash felt warmth glow in his body at the thought of his friend evolving to save his life). As a Psyduck, he'd looked awkward and stupid, but as a Golduck he looked far more imposing. The blue, bipedal, duck-like pokémon stood a few inches over five feet, easily making him the tallest on Ash's team. His beak was still cream-colored, but it was more pointed and a bit longer. The Golduck flashed his sharp, webbed claws in a way to show-off, and the red jewel embedded into his forehead glowed faintly for a second before dulling down.

"Hey, buddy!" Ash exclaimed happily. "You evolved!"

Hydrus cracked open his beak and quacked excitedly, swishing his long, blue tail. All in all, he was a stark contrast to his previous, silly-looking self. His scarlet eyes were far more aware and eager than as a Psyduck.

"Come here," the boy said, and the rest of his team parted to allow the Golduck to walk to his bed-ridden trainer. Hydrus glanced at the cast on Ash's right arm, but focused onto his face as the boy ran his fingers along one of Hydrus' longer and more powerful arms. "Thanks a lot. You saved my life, Hydrus. There's no way I would be alive without you."

Hydrus snorted arrogantly and pumped his fist. He soaked in all the attention the others were giving like a sponge. Ash stifled a laugh at his friend's behavior, but he supposed he earned it.

Red drily observed the interactions as he fiddled with a straw. "So," he said, "you mind introducing your group of troublemakers to me?"

"Right," Ash said, nodding. "You've already met Saur. Say hello!"

Saur grunted a simple greeting, which caused Red to smirk and Delia to wave happily.

"He looks pretty strong for his age," Red admitted. "But I don't think he'll ever be able to match up to Venusaur."

Ash smirked at that. "Let's see in a few years," he retorted challengingly. "Saur and I will steamroll you in seconds! Right, Saur?"

The Ivysaur in question nodded eagerly, which made Red's eyes twinkle briefly in amusement. Ash watched his starter leer at his brother for a few seconds before going over to the introducing the rest of his team.

"Well, my second was Delphi," he nodded at the Xatu in the corner of the room. Red and Delia glanced in the psychic-type's direction to get a good look at her. "I caught her as a Natu up on route one. She just evolved a few weeks ago and is really nice when you get to know her."

Delphi only stared creepily at the two humans looking at her. Her ethereal, black eyes shone eerily in the darkness of the corner, so Ash quickly switched onto the next member of the team.

"Next is Zeus," he said, grinning as the Flaaffy's mane sparked eagerly at the mention of his name. Red snorted at the display which caused the pokémon to scowl; Zeus didn't seem threatening, but when he battled he was.

"I caught him in Viridian Forest. He was a little miffed when Saur and Delphi thrashed him—" at that, Zeus' pink face visibly reddened in embarrassment, "—but he's one of the strongest on my team right now."

Ash chuckled as Delia began fawning over Luna, who seemed to be taken by the matronly woman. Red faced Ash with a mildly surprised expression. "Where did you catch a Clefairy?"

"I didn't," he responded. "She just came up to me and got herself captured, although I don't know why. All I can say is that I'm really happy she chose to join me on my journey; she's a real treat."

At that, Luna's cheeks turned darker and she smiled coyly towards the ground. Delia didn't miss that reaction and giggled, pulling in the Clefairy for another hug.

"She's so adorable!" his mother gushed.

The boy snorted at the display, then finally continued when Red probed him with a cough. "Number five is Hydrus," Ash said. The Golduck quacked at his name, raising his head haughtily. Ash noticed the jewel on his forehead blink once as he tried to manifest his inner psychic powers, but ceased his actions when Ash cast him a slight frown. "Anyways, he just evolved a few days ago – but you already know all about that."

"Hmm," Red hummed, then pointed a finger at Chimchar, who was busy melting into a puddle of orange fur under Ash's good arm. "Where did you get a Chimchar? Those aren't native to Kanto."

Ash nodded. "I know. I got him in a tournament on the St Anne." He shut his eyes briefly at the mention of the sunken ship, which caused memories of death and destruction flash past him mind until he got a hold of himself. "As I was saying, I won him in a battle tournament. He's getting pretty strong."

Red stared at the chimp with calculating eyes before giving his opinion. "You've got a fairly good team on hand, but you still need to work hard, even though you've won quite some battles from what I've heard, including the tournament which you told me about. You and your team will have to develop your own style. I can only point you in the general direction of the path that is most likely going to work for you."

Ash nodded, giving Red his full and undivided attention. His brother was practically a master, and he'd be glad to take any advice from the prodigious Pallet Town trainer.

"Let's take my Venusaur, for example. He's a veteran at the peak of his growth. His battle style is tanking attacks and wearing down his opponents with status ailments before delivering the finishing blow, but that's because he's had years of practice under his belt. If he was as old as your Ivysaur, he'd obviously lose if he used the battle style he's using right now," Red enlightened.

What Red said was true. While Saur was undoubtedly strong for his age, he was nothing compared to Red's Venusaur, his starter. Saur mainly relied on his speed (due to Chlorophyll) and his brute strength, which, Ash was pleased to say, was his best attribute.

"Also," the older Ketchum continued, "use your pokédex as much as you can. That nifty device isn't only for identifying pokémon – it's also for gauging your pokémon's strengths, abilities, whatnot. It also helps by giving you pointers and notes on the best way to make any pokémon into a powerhouse. Professor Oak didn't sponsor you for nothing."

Ash nodded slowly at that. While he had been using his dex a fair few times, he'd only really used it to gain basic information on any new pokémon that he came across. The pokédex also helped one to know what moves a pokémon could learn and already knew. He could even learn more about his friends' statistics. He'd certainly never use it to judge his pokémon, but he could use that to know which areas needed to be worked on the most. The pokédex was a database containing a whole plethora of knowledge, accessible only to those smart enough to use it wisely.

He simply nodded thankfully at his brother for the advice before lathering his team with affection, only wanting to make up for the time he'd lost with his family.

XxXxX

The door to his room swung open, admitting a rather tired-looking nurse. "You've got a visitor, Mr Ketchum," she informed the boy in a bored voice, before exiting the room and pertaining to whatever other work she had.

The boy in question frowned as soon as he registered her words. A visitor? Red and his mother had already left after the doctor had reassured them that he was fine, although his arm would still take some more time to fully heal, and had left for Pallet Town a day ago. Who else would come to visit him?

His questions were soon answered as literally the very last person Ash expected to show up swaggered right into the room. There was no mistaking the massive form of Lt Surge, complete with opaque shades and a Raichu on his tough shoulder.

" _Surge_?" Ash exclaimed, incredulous.

"How's it goin', Ketchum?" he barked in greeting. Although the man's demeanor was smug and cool, Ash could notice a trace of anger in his voice, and even his trademark cocky grin seemed a trifle forced.

Saur leered at Surge's Raichu, who adeptly jumped on the side of Ash's bed and sniffed the boy before making itself comfortable, but the saurian didn't do anything else. His team were already accustomed to Surge and the amount of noise the giant brought with him.

"How did you know I was here?" the boy asked, still surprised by the gym leader's sudden appearance.

Surge snorted. "Vermillion is my city, Ketchum," the man said. "I don't even need to lift a finger to get something done in this place. 'Course, your name comin' in the list of known survivors helped my search a little, along with one of the Joys telling me that you were in possession of my Fearow."

Ash nodded in understanding. He'd almost forgotten about the powerful flying-type that had flown Ash and Gary away from the St Anne moments before the ship had burst into fragments.

"How is it – she?" he corrected, remembering the raptor's gender.

Surge shrugged. "She'll be fine. Fearow's a strong one, although she needed a few days to completely recover from her injuries. Her chest was a little tender for some time, but she got over it in the end."

The boy unconscious ran his fingers through Raichu's fur. Bird pokémon didn't have incredibly strong bones compared to others, and though they were certainly tough Ash was kind of surprised at how powerful Surge's own Fearow was. If a single pokémon on a gym leader's real team was capable of taking out a Victreebel and Honchkrow in a few hits and holding its own against a Nidoking, Ash didn't even want to know how powerful the rest of Surge's monsters were. Surge was one of the few candidates that had been considered for an Elite Four position, along with Giovanni, until the spot was finally given to Jinichi Koga, Fuchsia's Gym Leader. He wondered how long it would take for his team to reach that high a level.

"So, why are you here?" Ash asked.

"I just needed to make sure you were okay," the man replied. "Although I don't think you will be – not for quite some time, anyway. I'd laugh in your pretty face if you said you were fine right now."

Ash just nodded uncomfortably. He didn't need to be reminded of it anymore. He'd had enough nightmares over the past few days to last a lifetime – and the image of the sailor's body kept cropping up in his mind at his weakest moments.

He shook away those thoughts and glanced at Surge, remembering something. "Surge…"

The gym leader perked up at his name. "Yeah, Ketchum?"

"The Rocket executives – Proton and Archer – they were after something…The pokémon energy amplifier?"

At that, Surge shifted in his seat uncomfortably. The trace of uneasiness in his eyes didn't go unnoticed by Ash, and it simply made his curiosity spike higher.

"Well?" he probed. "What is it?"

Surge hesitated. "If I tell you, you have to promise tell a soul," the giant of a man said sternly. "That doesn't get outta here, Ketchum; it's top secret information and only a handful of officials outside the board of gym leaders know about this."

"I promise," answered Ash, excitement and nervousness bubbling slowly in the pit of his stomach. "My lips are sealed."

Surge looked torn between telling Ash the truth and walking out of the room, but in the end he sighed resignedly. "All right," he grumbled, before narrating the entire story to the boy, who listened attentively and without making a sound.

"Four months ago, the League raided a Team Rocket base operating in one of the Seafoam Islands. A small army of ACE trainers conducted the raid and got a whole lot of grunts, but that ain't important. What is important is that we recovered something the Rockets had been developing for quite some time."

"The pokémon energy amplifier," Ash guessed.

Surge nodded. "Anyway, we don't know much about it – they'd managed to delete all the data holed up in the base before we could secure it. But what we do know is that this thing has a bunch of slots in it, along with a core that will amplify the energy absorbed from the items that are meant to go inside it. And since it the Rockets made this thing, we don't think the energy will be used to power Kanto's cities."

Surge sighed. "I was assigned to hand it over to Blaine for further investigation," he muttered. "The Rockets obviously knew that we got hold of the device, and the League didn't want to arouse their suspicion, so they sent me. I was anyways gonna be emceeing for that blasted tournament, so we thought that the delivery could happen without any disturbances. But we were wrong. They knew.

"We can't let them get their hands on that thing," Surge said, more to himself than to Ash, as he drummed his fingers on the edge of Ash's bed. "That thing is dangerous. Whatever their plans about it are, I don't wanna find out. If they do manage to take it back, it ain't gonna be pretty. It never is."

A short silence followed Surge's speech. "So, what now?" Ash asked. "I mean, now that Team Rocket—" Could he ever say those two words without feeling a spike of rage and vengeance? "—knows that you have that amplifying thingy, won't they come after you?"

Surge grinned dangerously. "Let them try, Ketchum," he growled, cracking his knuckles. "In fact, if any Rocket even dares to come after me, I'm gonna check if they really have balls of steel or not."

Ash grimaced. The Raichu on his bed shifted its weight slightly as he began to scratch the electric-type behind its ear, an action that elicited a hiss of delight. Surge smiled at the sight, but frowned when he checked his wristwatch. He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "I'm sorry, but I gotta go. Statements and press conferences, y'know. Stuff that a celebrity like me's gotta do."

Ash smirked a little at that. The two stared at one another, not knowing what to say until Surge searched for something from his pocket and fished out a thin slip of paper. Ash looked at it curiously as Surge handed it over. "Here's my pokégear number," he explained. "If you ever need help with an electric-type, or just talk, give me a ring. If I don't pick up, then I'm either beating the crap out of newbies or having some alone time."

He didn't know what the gym leader meant by the last part, but he just nodded. Surge cracked a grin before lifting his sleeping Raichu and placing the huge mouse on his shoulder. "See you around, Ketchum," Surge said. "And I'm lookin' forward to that rematch of ours. I can't wait to kick your ass."

"We'll see!" Ash called challengingly as Surge slammed the door shut. He looked at the door for a few moments, half-expecting Surge to show his cocky grin again, but after a few seconds his gaze drifted to the trainer magazine he'd been reading a while ago.

XxXxX

Ash breathed out a pleased sigh as he felt the cool breeze blowing on his face. Finally, he and his friends were out in the wilderness, with nothing to stop them as they continued on their quest to conquer Kanto.

The doctor had given him the all-clear over three hours ago, although he'd insisted on taking it easy for another day, but Ash had blatantly refused. He'd lingered in his bed for long enough, and he was feeling restless – he longed for the road, the wild outdoors, and the freedoms that came with it.

Not to mention that his team was getting really tetchy staying in the same place for so long.

Right now, as his fingers played along the six red-and-white orbs clipped on his belt, he stood in front of the large mountain range. The sight in front of him made him reminisce of the time when he, Natalie Summers and Jack Fernández had plunged into Mt Moon, unaware of the thrill they'd have in the depths of the mountain. Ash smiled a little at that, and silently wondered how his two friends were doing right now before shaking his head. Wherever they were, he hoped they were doing well.

He had made a change of plans during his stay in the hospital. While he had originally intended to head for Celadon City and challenge Erika, his conversation with Professor Oak aboard the St Anne had made him think a lot. Now, he was going to Lavender Town in order to catch a ghost-type. Besides, he sorely wanted one. They offered so many strategic possibilities, since they could attack, defend and cripple opponents with a wide range of moves. They also offered a counter to psychic-type pokémon, which were favorites of the Conference.

So Ash was getting a ghost.

Normally, he would've walked up routes twelve and eleven, which connected Vermillion to Lavender, but unfortunately the pathway had been completely obliterated. According to his pokégear, a Snorlax had somehow stumbled onto the path a few days ago from the nearby mountains and had fallen into one of their rages, blazing the roads with blasts of raw energy until it had thankfully went off into the nearby forest. Trainers were warned to avoid the road to Lavender Town since Snorlax were infamous for their short tempers and would destroy anything in their path unless they found a substantial amount of food to fulfil their desires. The League planned to send an Elite Four class trainer to capture it, but it would be a few days till their arrival, and Ash didn't want to wait any longer.

So Ash would be scaling the mountains. It was the shorter and faster route to Lavender Town, although it was far more dangerous since the weather conditions could change very quickly on such a place. Still, Ash was willing to take that risk. And he could also catch a rare and interesting pokémon if he found one.

He stretched his limbs, then checked his medicine pouch for potions and revives once again before zipping it up, content by the number of healing potions he was carrying.

With another sigh, he plunged towards the mountain range, bracing himself for whatever horrors and scares Lavender Town had in store for him.

XxXxX

"Hydrus, Scald!" Ash commanded.

The Golduck ducked under a Karate Chop from the Machop they were fighting and cracked open his cream-colored beak a split-second later, releasing a jet of scalding water that crashed into Machop's sternum. The fighting-type grimaced and screamed in pain, flailing its arms as it was knocked back to its trainer's feet.

Ash frowned a bit when the Machop began to push itself up, albeit tiredly, and issued another command without a second to lose. "Confusion."

With a quack, the gem on Hydrus' forehead glowed brightly, along with his scarlet eyes, before emanating a weak telekinetic force from his body. The Machop rose right in time for the psychic attack to slam into him and elicit a grunt of pain. The Confusion proved to be too much for Hydrus' opponent and battered the Machop into unconsciousness.

Hydrus quacked smugly and Ash smiled at his friend as Machop's trainer, a travelling hiker, recalled her defeated pokémon. The lady smiled as she handed over the prize money to Ash, bearing no ill will to the winning trainer, who grinned a thanks. The hiker sighed and tugged at her heavy backpack before walking in the direction opposite to Ash.

"That was great, Hydrus," Ash praised his friend, whose eyes twinkled in a touch of not-undeserved arrogance. The boy looked at the Golduck that towered him – it was still a bit difficult to believe that the Psyduck that had spent so long staring at mundane things now stood so tall, and so much more powerful. He'd taken down that Machop in only a few hits. Ash smiled involuntarily. "How did you get so strong?"

At that, Hydrus snorted, but looked pleased.

It had been well over six hours since he'd began his trek. The mountain had treated them well, with next to no trouble with the territorial pokémon around him. But it was incredibly hot and the only ones who actually enjoyed the heat were Chimchar and Saur, the former who kept hitching a ride on Ash's back and the latter who spent most of his time outside photosynthesizing.

There weren't many trainers on the road aside from themselves; few of them weren't hikers, and even fewer actually wanted to pick a fight, since most of the trainers Ash encountered were traveling from Lavender Town, but there were plenty of pokémon to look at. Herds of Rhyhorn, led by a single Rhydon, we're a common sight, as well as the odd group of Nidoran and their evolved forms. Ash was interested in catching a particularly powerful-looking Nidorino, but decided otherwise as the Nidoking leading them lowered his horn when Ash came a bit too close for the patriarch's comfort. The boy had immediately back away when the Nidoking had given him the evil eye, and although he was sure that the Nido-royal wouldn't come after him he didn't want to bet on it.

For the most part, Ash stayed away from the large groups of pokémon, since the adults could be very defensive when provoked. Ash had seen a cluster of Phanpy once and had thought about capturing one, but the Donphan of the group had tusks that made Ash travel immediately in the opposite direction.

Ash checked the map function on his pokégear as soon as he came to a halt, and sighed when he found his bearing. According to the GPS, it would take a day for him to reach the other side, and another day to finally reach Lavender Town, which was pretty fast since the journey along the designated pathway took about four days in total. Granted, there were more trainer encounters on routes twelve and eleven, but it wasn't like he had a choice right now, thanks to that Snorlax.

He found a good place to set camp, which was a fairly large patch of barren land, with a cluster of boulders scattered around. It was late in the evening and he could have walked a bit more, but Ash wanted to get some extra training as well as spend some more time with his team – particularly Chimchar. He hadn't exactly bonded with the chimp since he'd got him, and while Chimchar was far from an enigma he simply didn't know much about him. They would be working together, and if Ash wanted Chimchar to become a great fighter they needed to create a strong bond.

Once Ash had set up camp for the night, he sent out his team for their usual training session, which also served as a way for them to get a good night's sleep. His friends appeared with a chorus of sounds and formed a ring in front of him, eager to get into a good workout.

Before beginning the day's training, Ash had decided to give his team the TMs he'd purchased for them on board the St Anne. He sighed. He would never get over the calamity, and he could never forget the thousands of faces that had perished on board. Just seeing another ship would make his mind burn with death, he was sure.

Once he booted the TM case, he grabbed Luna's and Hydrus' pokeballs before selecting the Psychic TM. Ash grinned the whole time as their pokeballs glowed icy-blue, which signified the information being implanted in their minds. He originally wasn't planning on giving Hydrus a new move, but since the Golduck was now better and more able at using psychic-type moves he thought he'd give it a shot.

Next was Saur. He gave his starter Sunny Day, which would be invaluable for him in battle. He watched as the scratched pokeball gained an outline of orange, the machine in his hands whirring as it did its work. Then came Zeus and Delphi for Double Team. Once all the processes were done, Ash had set them loose.

"Okay guys," he said. "We've got quite some time before nightfall, so let's get some training done. I'm sure you all know that you've got some new moves, right?"

Saur growled eagerly, the fronds that supported his back tensing. Luna nodded, a smile forming on her face, while Hydrus clenched his claws and quacked in delight. Delphi, as expected, stared back at Ash impassively.

Chimchar, on the other hand, seemed mildly curious. "You'll be working on strengthening your moves, buddy," Ash filled him in, scratching the chimp's chin. "Okay?"

Chimchar simply shrugged on Ash's shoulder, and yipped an 'okay'.

Ash focused on his team once again. "Okay, so you know the drill," he told them. "Hydrus, Luna – start practicing on Psychic on some boulders. Zeus and Delphi, I want you to work on Double Team." The four that had been addressed nodded and went off a short distance away to work on their new moves. "Saur, I don't want you to try Sunny Day right now, since it's pretty dark and it will suck if the lights are still on when we're sleeping." The saurian snickered in amusement at that, but nodded in understanding.

Ash tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Keep practicing Double Edge, but switch to Power Whip from time to time. Okay?"

"And as for you," Ash said when Saur trotted away, the Chimchar yelping in surprise when the boy ripped him off his back. "Come with me, buddy. And you, Hydrus."

In truth, Chimchar hadn't battled at all, the only time being on the St Anne, although Ash hadn't gotten the chance to pay attention to his friend. Now that they were devoid of any Rockets (hopefully) and any distractions, he could assess Chimchar with ease.

As instructed, the fire-type followed Ash, who lead his newest friend and teammate to a nearby tree, where they could be away from the rest. Ash walked several meters away from the tree, then knelt beside Chimchar and pointed at the target.

"Okay, Chimchar. I'll call out your moves, and you're going to attack that tree with all your strength. I just need to know your power level before we get to the actual training." Ash looked at the Golduck, who stared back at his trainer quizzically, questioning his presence. "You're here to put out any fires we cause. We don't want to destroy the habitats, right?"

The chimp chirped eagerly and trained his large, black eyes on the thick, sturdy tree directly ahead of him. As the flame on Chimchar's rear-end blazed even more intensely, Ash scanned the pokémon with his pokédex in order to memorize his moves before beginning the drill.

"Ember."

Chimchar sucked in a deep breath, then spat a fairly large fireball at the tree. The blazing fireball shot towards the target like a meteor and scorched the bark harshly. The fire dissipated seconds after the impact, and, although the flickering flames looked like they would burst to life any second, Hydrus put them out with a quick and precise Water Gun.

Ash praised Chimchar for a good first attack and then looked back at the list of moves on his pokédex. "Right. Next use…"

Testing out Chimchar's moves passed by fairly quickly, since he didn't have a varied move pool, unlike the others. Flame Charge and Flame Wheel were A-Okay, especially the latter, since the way Chimchar executed it said it all. The only ones after that were Scratch and Fury Swipes, both of which were relatively simple moves.

After that, Ash told Hydrus to go work with Luna on Psychic, which the duck agreed to with an understanding quack. Ash watched the Golduck walk away for a few seconds before glancing at his dex once more, this time in order to think of some training regimes for the Chimchar.

He was halfway through said process before a though hit him like a freight train. "Chimchar, do you want a nickname?" He had completely forgotten about possibly naming his newest pokémon, but it was always there at the back of his mind.

When Chimchar looked at him in mild confusion, Ash explain the concept of nicknaming, but the fire-type declined after a moment's pause. He was dejected by the disagreement, but figured that it was his pokémon's choice, after all. In any case, even if he tried to force Chimchar into accepting a name, the pokémon could well and easily just not listen to him – not that he was going to do that, in the first case.

Ash grinned. "Alright, Chimchar. It's great to have you at any rate."

Chimchar chirped happily, the flame on his tail burning brighter and brighter. Ash chuckled as the pokémon maneuvered his way onto Ash's back, where he wrapped his limbs around Ash's torso. The boy blinked at how light Chimchar was – he weighed next to nothing.

Ash turned his head slightly so that he got a glimpse of Chimchar through the corner of his eye. "Let's go check on the others, okay?"

Chimchar yipped, clutching tighter as Ash walked to the rest of his friends.

XxXxX

Working with the new TMs had its mixed results.

The moves his friends had learned were all relatively simple, but they'd require a few days of practice before he was absolutely sure in their ability to use them.

Double Team was an easy one to master, although there were slight downs. Delphi was the best at it, but the clones she created split off her actual body, albeit at a blindingly fast speed. It would take some time for her to conjure the copies out of thin air, but as of now any sharp-eyed opponent would be able to lock onto the real Delphi. Zeus' clones also separated from his true body, and even worse was that he was slow to create them – the fastest was five whole seconds. Ash wasn't sure what the problem was, but for now, it was just obvious that he needed practice.

Psychic also had its own ups and downs. Hydrus could create that huge an amount of psychic energy, but he needed a little practice. Luna was another matter entirely. She was amazing at Stored Power, but she needed some time to build up the energy required to perform Psychic. She too, like Zeus, needed practice.

Ash couldn't assess Saur on his use of Sunny Day – the grass-type had obeyed his trainer's command and spent the entire training session either practicing Synthesis or Double Edge. Ash actually grimaced when his starter rammed into the tree that was his target with such force that the impact was enough to make leaves rain down on him, leaving him shaking his head in an attempt to focus.

By the end of the night everyone was tired, and the group (excluding the Xatu, who seemed displeased by their sleeping place) nodded off without missing a beat.

XxXxX

Ash blinked himself awake and frowned to the sound of steady booms coming from far away. His forehead creased; the inexplicable sound was getting louder by the moment, but who had nudged him awake—

" _Delphi_?" he croaked.

The Xatu was towering over his sleeping form, her eyes glittering with warning. Her right wing was extended towards his shoulder; she was the one who had woken him up. He opened his mouth to question her, then—

A roar filled the air.

He froze.

In a split-second, the boy shot up, his eyes wide with fear, shock and a pinch of puzzlement. He didn't know what caused that frightening sound (a moody Nidoking was at the top of his list) but all he knew was that he didn't want to meet it.

Without a moment to lose, he unzipped his sleeping bag, and frantically searched for his hat. He'd soaked a balled-up of Max Repel and stuck it in the ground with a stick to ward off any approaching pokémon. His own team was in their pokeballs since they couldn't stand the smell, and he hadn't the foggiest as to how Delphi had managed to survive the spray. Ash knew the smell exuded by Repels were absolutely ghastly to pokémon, although he had read that sometimes pokémon got so enraged by the odor that sometimes they would seek out the source in order to destroy it, so there was always a small risk of using the item. So unless there was an ice-cream vendor heading his way he needed to get the hell out of here.

"What happened?" he asked Delphi as he frantically stuffed his sleeping bag into his backpack; the booms were getting louder. He could only see her outline and those glowing, ethereal eyes; the sky was pitch-black. "What's heading our way?"

Of course that was a stupid question to ask; pokémon couldn't speak, and it would anyways be some time before Delphi would be able to converse telepathically with him. Still, he could make out that she was ready to puke from the smell of the Repel, so he quickly grabbed the stick upon which the balled-up-repel-sprayed sock was perched and shoved it unceremoniously into the medicine pouch of his backpack.

"Okay," Ash said. "Now let's get out of here."

Another stomp echoed through the night. Whatever was walking towards him, it had to be huge. Titanic. A _behemoth_. Ignoring the pounding of his heart, he slung the backpack over his shoulder and turned around to look at Delphi, but that was his big mistake.

In the distance was a massive, gigantic form, slowly making its way towards him. Its rotund, chubby body was the absolutely enormous. Topping the creature, with little neck, was an equally round head, with two triangular ears. Its clawed arms were neither short nor long, but they were powerful – filled with fat and muscle to the point where no one could tell which ended where.

It was a beast. An unmovable obstacle ready to pulverize him without a moment's hesitation. Its normally closed eyes had shot open as it gave into its rampage, and those glowing red orbs locked onto Ash's and Delphi's diminutive forms.

Oh, he recognized the creature, all right. No one could not know those large, fat pokémon, but right now, instead of happiness at seeing such a rare beast, he felt only dread.

He was facing a Snorlax's rampage.

There would be no escaping it.

And yes, he was (most probably) going to die.

He just couldn't catch a break, could he?

He'd never actually met a Snorlax. Even Blue, who had one of his own, never showed Gary and Ash his specimen, despite their many pleas, since they were loyal only towards their trainers. They were fantastically rare pokémon, as rare as the elusive dragons, and colonies were only found at the highest of mountains – Mt Silver, Mt Coronet, the like.

Snorlax were dangerous. They hit hard, could tank anything short of a Hyper Beam, and their huge reservoirs of fat meant that it would take a lot for something to penetrate them and draw even a drop of blood. It would take a lot of noise to rouse one. Snorlax were normally very docile and friendly pokémon, but they woke up cranky from naps, and being terribly hungry or hurt was enough reason to send them into a rampage.

And Ash was on the receiving end of it.

He frowned a little as he scrutinized the Snorlax walking towards him. It wasn't really that big – just a little over six feet tall, which meant that it wasn't particularly strong – but it was powerful enough to smash him into a pulp. He briefly wondered if his team could take it on, but if this Snorlax was in its prime then they all would probably die with one, half-hearted blow.

He was shaken out of his musings as the Snorlax vented its rage with an ear-splitting bellow of pure fury. It stomped, causing the very earth around it to tremble and shake. It had eyes for only one thing: the human directly ahead of it.

"Run!" Ash screamed at Delphi as the Snorlax began to quicken its pace. Snorlax were able to move at speeds such huge creatures had no right to. The juggernaut's every step made the ground under it shake – it was a slow run, although Ash had no doubt that it could and would catch up to him.

Delphi immediately shrieked in understanding and flapped her wings, taking to the air. Then Ash yelped as a pair of sharp talons gripped him by the arms. Ash's eyes glanced up and widened in shock as he saw Delphi struggling to pull him away from the barreling Snorlax, who roared furiously and began to (for lack of a better word) jog even faster as to not let its prey get away.

The Xatu was struggling to keep the both of them in the air; her eyes were screwed up in the effort, and she was putting all her strength to beat her powerful wings and drag them away from the oncoming Snorlax. Ash was tempted to recall her, but he knew that she would just pop out once again.

Delphi shrieked, flapping her wings even harder as her talons dug into his flesh in a struggle to keep gripping him. Ash winced as her claws pierced his skin, but he didn't care – she was doing her best to save him and he wasn't going to complain.

Then he felt the air behind him heat up suddenly, and the sound of something impacting Delphi. Ash glanced behind for a split-second and saw the remnants of a beam of orange energy, which soon dissolved into nothingness. Delphi shrieked in agony as the Hyper Beam drove into her back, then screeched in terror as she felt her claws unclench, too tired to hold onto her trainer, and he plummeted to the ground, his arms flailing wildly as the wind howled in his ears.

He landed harshly on the hard ground, and he gasped as pain shot up his ankle, his entire weight falling on his foot. His breathing turned harsh and ragged and he felt something heavy clogging up in his chest. He'd twisted his ankle – again, for the second time since he'd left Pallet Town, while in the same situation. However, this time, instead of four dozen Beedrill, it was one angry Snorlax with anger management issues.

He glanced where Delphi was, and felt a wave of relief when he saw her still alive, albeit incredibly tired. The Hyper Beam hadn't been catastrophic, which meant that this Snorlax wasn't the infamously powerful ones the people of Kanto and Sinnoh used to hear about.

And now he realized that he had a chance. This Snorlax wasn't tremendously strong, and his entire team could – emphasis on _could_ – probably take it on all at once.

But if he failed…

Behind him, the Snorlax was recovering from the effort to use the Hyper Beam, albeit slowly. He decided to make a run for it. If his friends were defeated, then he would have no way to defend himself. Ash pushed himself up, grimacing as his twisted ankle throbbed from the effort, but there was no choice. He had to suck up the pain like his friends did in battle and get the hell out of here.

So he limped away from the recovering Snorlax with all his might. The behemoth groaned in anger as it saw its prey run away, and slowly began to move in an attempt to catch up. Ash's heart beat faster as he heard the sound, and began to run, ignoring the constant pulses of pain shooting up his leg. He didn't dare glance behind, because he was afraid that he was going to stop if the Snorlax had continued its pursuit.

Then there were the sounds of thuds booming through the ground behind him, and Ash yelped. The boy was ready to piss himself at the thought of Snorlax catching up to him and devouring his innards for a light snack. This was the second time in the same damn week where he was in another deadly situation. Why did these things happen only to _him_?!

"Delphi, return!" he muttered, recalling the near-exhausted Xatu into her stasis pod. Behind him, the Snorlax paused for a second and rumbled in confusion at the disappearance of his prey. Then it bellowed once again, rushing at Ash, desperate to at least snag him.

The ten-year-old's heart skipped a beat as he saw a forest coming into his line of sight, and he sighed inwardly in relief. He would easily be able to avoid the Snorlax there and play a game of hide-and-seek with it. Hopefully he'd be able to send a distress signal to the nearest Ranger outpost, which was two kilometers up from the mountain. And hopefully they'd send a whole squadron and pull him out of this sticky spot.

It was getting painful to breathe, and the constant agony near his foot wasn't helping. He glanced back, and began to run harder when he saw the enraged Snorlax still pursuing him. "Just leave me alone!" he screamed desperately, tears welling up in his eyes.

He reached the cluster of trees in minutes, the enormous normal-type bellowing as he disappeared between the foliage. His heart thumping madly, he continued to run, dodging trees every other second, and he felt a rush of relief when the roars of the Snorlax became distant.

His joy had died soon enough when he suddenly rammed into a tree, too happy to notice the sturdy obstruction right ahead of him. He found himself on the ground, reeling from the impact and gasping for air as he clutched his sides in pain. The tears threatened to fall from his eyes and his pace reduced to that of walking speed. Unable to go on until he caught his breath, he leaned next to another tree and sucked in bags of oxygen as he rested.

Everything added to his fear as he stood there: the cool, eerie wind whistling softly; the darkness engulfing him like a blanket; the occasional snapping of twigs and rustling of leaves that left him flinching in fright. He kept his hands over the pokeballs on his belt, ready to send out his trusty friends if there was any sign of danger. He looked around the tree he was hiding behind to make sure that the Snorlax wasn't near; he sighed when he didn't recognize its bulky form, and then unzipped his backpack.

He pulled out his flashlight and flipped the switch. A beam of light tore through the darkness, illuminating the distance, and it only made his surroundings eerier. Ash kept flashing his torch, trying to search a way to get out of this mess—

Ash flinched and screamed as the tree in front of him was ripped out like a plaything and tossed to the ground, where it fell with a mighty thud. The Snorlax bellowed, its body shaking in fury as the light fell onto its face. Flecks of spit flew from its open mouth, which showcased several sharp fangs ready to sink into anything the Snorlax would set its eyes on. The enormous normal-type screamed once again, and Ash snagged the pokeballs from his belt before hurling it at Snorlax without a second to lose.

Five consecutive bursts of white light illuminated the air, and Snorlax reeled back as the pokémon materialized. Saur, Zeus, Luna, Hydrus and Chimchar formed on the ground, blinking rapidly to adjust to the darkness. Their bodies tensed as they saw their opponent, whose mouth curled up in a snarl as it got ready to kill.

Ash immediately began issuing orders, at the same time backing away. "Leech Seed, Stored Power, Ember, Thunder Wave, Psybeam!" His best hope would be to first inflict status ailments on the Snorlax in order to slow it down, and then do their best to weaken it. If it didn't manage to kill them, Ash's current plan was to humiliate it by capturing the pokémon.

His friends immediately set to work. As Snorlax raised its arms to slash at its unfortunate targets, several glowing, green seeds shot out of the Ivysaur's bud violently, all headed towards their large victim. All six of them bounced off Snorlax's chubby belly, then the parasitic pellets snapped open and Snorlax was wrapped in several nets of thick, strong vines. The Snorlax roared in rage as the vines glowed green, sapping energy from their host while also restricting its movements.

Chimchar opened his fanged mouth, releasing a blankets of blazing embers at the portions of Snorlax's body that were not wrapped by vines. The flames struck the massive creature, but it didn't even seem fazed. The Chimchar tilted his head, but kept up the Ember. He knew that it wasn't working much, but he didn't seem to know what to do about it.

Luna let loose a blast of polychromatic light at Snorlax just as Hydrus released a similar beam of psychic energy from his eyes, which bounced against its chubby belly, which seemed to absorb the attack. The Snorlax frowned slightly, then opened its mouth, in which began to form a sphere of bright orange-gold energy, which began to increase in size as Snorlax prepared a Hyper Beam.

Its preparations were cut short as Zeus leapt in the air, his tail hardening as it glowed metallic-silver. The Flaaffy landed on his opponent's shoulder, and used it as a launching platform to leapt higher into the air before smashing the Iron Tail into the top of Snorlax's skull. Snorlax bellowed angrily and stretched its arm to pull Zeus off his neck, but the vines wrapped around its arms restrained it.

Snorlax gave up trying to grab Zeus and continued charging up the Hyper Beam. The sphere grew to its maximum size, glowing with orange energy. The attacker reared its head back, then thrust it forward just as Ash shouted, "Down!"

All four pokémon dropped to the ground as soon as the sphere of raw energy lengthened into a beam. The blast tore through the air with a harsh hiss, then smashed into the hard wood of a tree. Splinters flew through the air, and there was a huge groan of creaking wood as the tree was uprooted from the ground. Several Hoothoot flew out of the tree just before it fell over with a mighty crash.

The Snorlax staggered back, obviously tired by the use of two Hyper Beams. It would take some time for it to recharge and gained enough energy to move, but until then it was a sitting duck and Ash would make full use of it. "Attack!"

His pokémon made a cacophony of sounds, before charging at the Snorlax. Saur kept whipping it with his vines, smacking every square inch of its body. Luna darted around, blasting the behemoth from every angle with blasts of psychic energy, occasionally whacking it with a Wake-Up Slap. Chimchar, wreathed in flames, kept ramming into Snorlax with all the might stored in that tiny body. Zeus unleashed thin lances of electricity in a bid to paralyze its limbs while switching to Iron Tail and Thunderbolt occasionally. Hydrus kept blasting it with Scalds and Psybeams, although Snorlax's fat exterior seemed to just absorb the latter. Scald seemed to hurt a bit, what with the little winces it was giving, although the heat behind the attack wouldn't even faze it, thanks to its insulation.

Finally Snorlax roared, having finally recovered. It flexed its powerful arms and waved them wildly, and Ash's heart stopped when it smacked an oncoming Chimchar, who flew straight into a tree with blinding speed. There was a smack as Chimchar hit the hard wood, his flame burning the bark slightly, and Ash recalled his unconscious friend just as he fell to the ground.

Ash grimaced, backing away as Snorlax grabbed Saur by the vines and flung him into the air before driving him into the ground. The Ivysaur got back up, albeit tired. Snorlax took a step forward to attack Saur, only for a jolt of electricity to slam into its face, followed by a snipe of pressurized water.

"Zeus, Double Team!" Ash ordered. Zeus grunted, leaping away to dodge a Mega Punch before a dozen illusory copies slowly split from his body, surrounding Snorlax. The normal-type behemoth frowned in confusion, wondering whether it had accidentally inhaled something white and powdery as twelve Flaaffy began circling it. "All of you, force it away!"

The remaining four of Ash's team leapt into action at his command, rushing towards Snorlax with the intent to hurt. Zeus and his clones darted around Snorlax in different directions and made Snorlax slow to a stop as it tried to pick a target. The enraged normal-type charged several copies, causing the clones to vanish as Snorlax passed through them and Snorlax to get blindsided by a barrage of continuous attacks.

Snorlax curled up into a ball, then began to roll at its opponents. Snorlax barreled into Zeus' actual body, the Rollout attack knocking him away. Ash yelped when he realized that Snorlax was heading for him, and he mentally kissed himself goodbye, until the curled-up behemoth was frozen in a prison of red energy. Ash realized that Hydrus had Disabled it, and he leapt away just as Snorlax broke free from the immobilizing technique with a flex of its arms, and continued rolling, missing Ash by an mere foot. The normal-type continued to roll away like a bowling ball and crashed into a tree, knocking it down, but it still continued to roll. At this rate, the birds of the mountain weren't going to have any homes.

"Let's go!" Ash yelled at his, pushing himself up as he saw Snorlax slow to a halt out of the corner of his eye. His pokémon were tired and Snorlax hadn't even been pushed to its limit yet. Right now, his plan to capture the beast looked like suicide.

His friends seemed torn between continuing to challenge Snorlax and running away, but they heeded his words and began to scurry away from the recovering Snorlax. The net of vines wrapped around its body still pulsed and glowed as it sapped the energy from, but it looked like it had hardly done any—

A deep bellow suddenly shook the ground and then the very earth beneath Snorlax exploded with raw power, sending it five feet back. Ash thought for a moment that it was a passing trainer until another Earth Power knocked Zeus off his feet, and Ash recalled his with an expression of shock and terror as he stared at the individual that had surprised them.

He skin turned even whiter as the massive form of a Nidoking casually smashed a tree out of the way with his ridiculously powerful tail. He looked extremely angry, and Ash knew that the patriarch thought they were trespassing in his territory. Snorlax growled angrily and its eyes jumped to Nidoking, and Ash was just relieved that it had finally changed targets.

Ash had no choice but to recall Hydrus and Saur – their presence would simply mean a three-way fight. Fending off a Snorlax was one thing, but battling a Nidoking at the same time? That was ridiculous and downright stupid.

Ash ran a good distance away from the two pokémon. He was in no mood to put himself in danger, but he wanted to see the outcome of the battle. The winner would be absolutely exhausted and a little part of him hoped that the victor would be captured easily by him.

Nidoking made the first move by lowering his long, sharp horn and charging at Snorlax with Horn Attack. Each step caused the solid ground beneath him to tremble slightly as he rushed Snorlax. Snorlax retaliated by winding its fist back, which was consumed by white energy in seconds. The Mega Punch caught Nidoking under the chin at just the right angle so that it caused the Nido-royal to flip backwards and land harshly on the back of his head. Snorlax bellowed victoriously, then pushed itself into the air with its powerful legs to deliver a Body Slam. Nidoking's eyes widened briefly as Snorlax reached its peak and began to plummet straight towards him, but the patriarch's quick-thinking saved him – his tail hardened and glowed with the power of Iron Tail, before swatting Snorlax in the midsection with all his strength so that the normal-type pokémon landed right next to him.

Both behemoths rolled away from each other a good distance away before standing back to their feet. Enraged from its failed assault, Snorlax condensed bright orange energy in its mouth and fired the beam in a sweeping motion towards everything in the forest.

Ash ducked down immediately and avoided the beam, although his heart stopped when he realized that it had sliced through the tree he'd been hiding behind. He rolled to his right, wincing as he felt some pressure on his ankle, but he was grateful that he wasn't crushed under the hard wood, which hit the ground with an almighty thud. The crash made the ground shake and his ears hurt, but a few branches managed to scrape his arms, drawing blood, and he let out a gasp of pain.

That was his mistake. Nidoking's large, sensitive ears twitched at the sound, and his large head snapped towards Ash's location, his beady black eyes trained on the boy. Ash had no doubt that the Nidoking could see him through the darkness. The ground-type made to move towards him and Ash frantically scrambled to his feet, but, as luck would have it, Snorlax crashed into Nidoking with all its weight. The behemoth roared with fury, swinging his arms wildly as Snorlax grappled him and ran Nidoking straight through several trees.

"Crud," Ash muttered, as Snorlax gripped an arm and a leg of Nidoking and heaved backwards. The Snorlax twisted and used its bulky arms to hurl Nidoking across the forest, where the armor-clad beast crashed into the ground hard. Nidoking's head snapped backwards from the impact and roared in pain, but he managed to push himself back up to glare at his foe.

Nidoking bellowed again, specks of spit flying, before stomping the ground hard. A concentrated tremor of energy rushed at Snorlax, who frowned in confusion, but screamed in surprise as the earth below it detonated and the ground-type energy slammed into it face-first. With it momentarily stunned, Nidoking seized his chance, lowering his horn, which glowed a sickly purple as it leaked potent poison, before lunging at Snorlax with all his strength.

The scream of pain that followed almost turned Ash deaf. The might behind Nidoking's rush had allowed his horn to penetrate through the multiple layers of fat protecting Snorlax's body and allowed the patriarch to release his poison into Snorlax's bloodstream. Now it was on a time limit, and all three of them – Ash, Nidoking and Snorlax – knew it.

Snorlax's eyes were bloodshot. It scrambled towards a somewhat frightened Nidoking, its huge teeth exposed. The behemoth smashed its claws in the spot Nidoking had just charged away from and got a few poisonous barbs to the face for its trouble.

Snorlax bellowed, enraged at the fact that someone had managed to draw blood. It snarled an launched itself at Nidoking with all its strength. The poison-type triggered an Earth Power once Snorlax reached its peak in the air, but its chubby exterior managed to weather the ground-type energy, which simply pushed it even higher.

Nidoking screamed as Snorlax landed on him, crushing the patriarch to the ground. The Leech Seed around Snorlax glowed florescent green and it winced, but pushed itself up from the fallen Nidoking and curled a clawed fist. Nidoking barely had time to register the Mega Punch to the back before Snorlax smashed his head with a second.

Snorlax grinned savagely and stomped on the Nidoking's aching back before flipped him away with a powerful foot. The pokémon landed harshly on the ground, his weight digging a foot-deep trench.

But he got up, though. Nidoking pushed himself up to his feet, his muscles aching from the countless barrage of attacks. Snorlax was equally tired, although its rage hadn't lessened. The two stared off each other before roaring sounds of defiance as they unleashed their final attacks.

Nidoking pounded his armored chest before shutting his eyes in concentration, the thick and long horn on his head glowing a sickly-green color as it stopped secreting toxins, a move which Ash recognized as Megahorn. Only a few pokémon could learn the ridiculously powerful bug-type move naturally, and Nidoking were one of them. Combined with the natural strength of their horns, Megahorn used by said pokémon was something to be reckoned with.

Meanwhile, Snorlax roared, determined not to be outdone. It crouched slightly, bending at the knees and lowering its thick skull. A focal point of raw energy formed at the center of its head, before spreading around its massive body and coalescing in a purple sheath with orange streaks spiraling around it. Ash had seen Lance's Dragonite using the move too many times for him to not recognize it – Giga Impact. Giga Impact rivalled Hyper Beam in strength, although it was a physical move rather than an energy one. A great choice for a Snorlax, who excelled with their strength.

The two suddenly launched at each other with speeds that creatures their size shouldn't have had. The sheer force of their charges was enough to send blasts in every direction, parting the patches of grass around them. Ash squinted as the Nidoking and Snorlax came closer to each other, but Ash already knew who would win.

Snorlax slammed into Nidoking with his side, causing the horn to pierce through its shoulder. Snorlax screamed in unison with Nidoking, the two of them being knocked away from each other due to the force of the collision, which generated a shockwave so strong that Ash could feel its remnants fifteen meters away. Snorlax rolled in the hard ground before crashing into a tree and coming to a halt, the likewise happening to Nidoking.

Ash watched with baited breath. Then, slowly, Snorlax rose from the ground, muscles aching as a trickle of blood seeped out of its shoulder, barely conscious. The normal-type roared arrogantly before staggering towards the fallen Nidoking, drunk with victory. It smirked at its opponent, whose mouth was half-open and eyes were rolled in the back of its head. It was unconscious.

Then Snorlax did something that made Ash want to puke. It gripped one of the armor plates on Nidoking's back with both, ignoring the pricks from the poisonous spines. It grunted, tugging at the plate several times with all its remaining might, and Ash looked away when he realized what it was about to do.

There was the sound of something being ripped as Ash whipped around. He ignored the bile forming in his throat, but after a few seconds curiosity got the better of him. He grimaced as he saw Snorlax raising its right arm, a purple plate of armor in hand, blood trickling from the underside. Then his eyes travelled to Nidoking, but his head snapped away the second he saw blood forming on the exposed flesh.

"Oh my God," he whispered in a horrified voice. Snorlax was a monster. It had torn off a scale from his opponent as a spoil of war. It was ruthless.

With Snorlax so weakened, Ash seized his chance to grab an empty pokeball and hurl it at the huge creature, who was holding the plate to its wounded shoulder. What with being so badly poisoned and soundly trashed, he was sure that he would now have a Snorlax on his team.

His aim was good and it was sucked up in a flash of red light, much to his relief. The pokeball wriggled a few times, but Ash froze when it exploded violently, unleashing Snorlax upon him with a roar of rage.

Furious black eyes locked onto him in half a second and he felt a sliver of ice slide down his spine. It was having none of that.

In that moment, Ash truly thought of himself as stupid. He could've done the easy thing and walked away while it was in combat with Nidoking, but noooooo. He just had to try and capture it.

And now, he had a Snorlax out for his blood…again.

"Damn it!" he cursed to himself as he saw the Snorlax tear at the vines wrapped around its body, its muscles contracting as it pulled them apart. In no time it was free and the parasitic vines were a heap of green on the ground. The monster winced – probably from the poison, which was still working in its blood – and began to walk at the boy, quickening its pace by the second.

Ash ran. He ran like he'd never run before, ignoring his limp. Booms echoed behind him in unison with his pounding heart. Trees were pushed out of the way with several Mega Punches and sent crashing to the ground. Ash almost fell down once, but he righted himself and kept running.

Ash didn't dare release his pokémon. The normal-type chasing would knock them out with one blow however tired it was, and probably leave them in the same disgusting state as the Nidoking. His friends didn't deserve this. If he was going to die, he would do his best to keep them safe.

He nearly fainted in fright when he came to the edge of the forest and found himself looking upon a small rocky area on the tip of a massive cliff. There was no running away now.

Snorlax seemed to realize that too, because it slowed down and started to grin. Ash scowled at its ruthless nature, but he couldn't do anything about it. He was just thinking about a way to get out of this mess, the gears in his head whirring at lightning speed as he walked backwards, closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. Snorlax grunted, flexing its arms and it suddenly hawked up what looked like purple and black phlegm. It fell to its knees as the poison struck it, but managed to keep itself standing with its arms.

As Snorlax gingerly stood back up, Ash's eyes lit up. An idea was formulating in his mind, although it was extremely dangerous and risky.

But when had it ever been easy?

Without a moment to consider his next actions, Ash released Saur. His starter tensed up again as he noticed Snorlax, who scowled at the Ivysaur's presence, but didn't look particularly threatened. It was sure that a single Mega Punch would knock him out – it was close to fainting, sure, but it still had a little gas left in the tank.

Adrenaline gushed through him like high-octane fuel as Snorlax tensed. The beast of a pokémon pounded its belly before stomping its way towards Ash, picking up speed by the second. The behemoth lowered its head slightly as it continued to barrel towards Ash. "Come on!" he screamed. Fear seized his heart, but he didn't allow panic to do the same. "COME ON!"

The Snorlax gave into his taunts and began charging even faster. It bellowed in rage, its arms swinging at its side wildly as—

"Saur, Energy Ball!"

A green sphere of pure solar energy smote Snorlax in the face, causing it to scream as the orb detonated in a burst of green energy. Snorlax clawed at its eyes, the smoke in front of it obscuring its vision. With it momentarily blinded, Ash _moved_.

"Run!" he ordered, and he and Saur took off. The two of them shot into opposite directions as they charged away from the edge of the cliff, Ash twisting his body to get around Snorlax while Saur used his strong vines to push himself off the ground. Ash's heart pounded wildly as he was nearly smacked backwards by Snorlax's flailing arms, but the limb missed him by a mere inch. Snorlax, however, rushed straight through air and regained its vision just as it reached the edge.

Ash looked back with savage triumph as he heard Snorlax bellow in rage and disbelief as it tumbled down the cliff. As the beast's head disappeared over the edge, he fell to his knees.

He screamed his victory, relief and adrenaline flooding him once more. He'd won. Granted, there were several instance when he'd almost died, but it had been worth it. He'd _won_.

Saur grinned as fiercely as he could. The saurian was standing several meters away from him, proof of his strong limbs and durability. He'd covered the distance much faster than Ash, but it was expected – pokémon were far stronger and had more endurance than people.

"We did it, buddy," Ash whispered, his lips still curled and wide. "Now let's—"

His grin faded as he heard a titanic roar. The cliff shook slightly as something climbed its way back to the surface. Ash slowly craned his neck towards the edge, fearing the worst as he saw…

A muscled arm slammed into the surface, digging its sharp claws into the ground. It pulled itself up with the help of another equally strong arm that shook the earth. Snorlax lay down on the ground, breathing heavily from the effort of scaling the cliff, but it had done it.

Ash blanched as Snorlax pushed itself off the ground, but fell again. He secretly hoped that it had fallen unconscious, but it grunted and started getting up once again. The pokémon staggered to its feet and almost fell over, but it righted its footing and glared at Ash.

Snorlax was injured and pissed, and the poison still flowing in its bloodstream wasn't helping its mood. Its vision was a bit hazy, but it could make out the human all right. All it wanted to do right now was crush that insect into a pulp, a feeling that it vented by cracking its knuckles.

Snorlax took a step forward but stumbled to its knees, but rose to its feet and crouched, tensing its muscles as its body glowed with the power of Heavy Slam. Ash's heart hammered in his chest as Snorlax leapt high in the air and came down _hard_ —

The beast crashed into the ground with all its weight causing the cliff to shudder. A wild tremor passed from the source of impact, making the ground under Ash to tremble. Cracks spidered from Snorlax, who stood rose gingerly, its mouth twisted in a sadistic grin and Ash realized what was about to happen—

"Shit!" Ash yelled as large sections at the edge began to break off and slowly fall to the ground. Snorlax simply heaved a resigned sigh of defeat as the section below it gave way, and it disappeared. Cracks kept spreading and more parts of the cliff began to fall down, and Ash scrambled to his feet as the edge soon got closer and closer to him.

The boy sprinted away, grimacing at the throbbing pain in his still-twisted ankle. The ground where Ash had previously been sitting upon broke apart and Ash began to run harder and harder as the edge behind him came closer and closer, as if chasing him. The sound of breaking rocks became louder and—

Every nerve in his body screamed as the ground fell away beneath his feet and he let out a terrified wail of agony and disbelief as he felt himself _falling_ —

" _SAUR_!"

His best friend screamed in defiance as Ash disappeared under the edge. As he continued to fall, there was a hiss in the air and he looked up, not wanting to glance down, and saw a green rope shooting through the air before it descended towards him and wrapped around his outstretched arm—

He gasped as Saur's vines twisted around his wrist and held him in a death grip, and he felt a jolt of pain in his shoulder as his sudden descent ceased immediately. He felt his hat fly off his head, exposing his hair to the darkness and the wind. He swung towards the cliff like a pendulum and slammed into it with his shoulder, but he didn't care for the pain – he was just happy that he was alive, and he tugged at the tentacle like a lifeline.

He glanced down. Below him, the fallen sections of the cliff stopped moving – the cliff had been a downward slope and had prevented the piles of broken cliff from continuing to fall. He could vaguely make out Snorlax's shape several meters below him as it burst from under the pile of rubble it had been buried under and roared at its failure to destroy his target.

Snorlax opened its mouth to roar again, but stopped immediately as a fairly small part of the cliff broke off and landed on its head. The beast staggered slightly, eyes closing as they rolled in the back of its head, unconscious from the blow. The Snorlax crashed on the broken earth, causing it to tremble slightly before their movements ceased.

"I won!" Ash screamed to its unconscious form, unclipping one of the empty ultra-balls on his belt with his free hand. "I won!"

And he hurled the sphere at the beast.

His aim was perfect; the ultra-ball scored a clean hit on Snorlax and sucked it in a flash of red. The destructive normal-type was completely out of it and the ball barely wriggled before it clicked.

Ash grinned. He looked back up, noticing the vine around his wrist tightening around him. "Saur!" he screamed. "Pull me back up, please!"

There was a distant growl before another vine slithered towards him. He spent a few seconds trying to grab onto the vine, which somehow seemed to move in a different direction each time he was sure he was going to grasp it, until he finally caught hold it. The tentacle wrapped around his other wrist before Saur reeled his appendages upwards, along with his trainer.

He landed on his behind, and ignored the sharp jolt he received from the impact before he fell flat on his back, arms outstretched as his stomach and chest began to rise and fall rapidly from quick pants. He turned his head slightly as he saw Saur's green, pigmented face enter his vision, eyes narrowed in concern as he lightly kicked his trainer in the ribs with a wide and blunt foot while prodding him with the enlarged tips of his vines. Ash just grinned back lazily, too tired to get back up.

"Hah…" He panted. "Nice…work, Saur…"

The Ivysaur growled softly, his vines traveling over Ash's body.

He frowned when he realized something; he didn't have Snorlax's ultra-ball with him. It was still far below, lying on the pile of rubble and fragmented earth.

How the heck was he going to retrieve it?

XxXxX

 **Hey everyone! It's been a tough several weeks, but I'm glad I got this chapter out. I was originally planning on Ash catching Snorlax after the events of Lavender Town, but I just couldn't resist this piece! This is also a pretty short chapter compared to the 35,000 word behemoth I wrote previously, since this is only a mere 15,000 words.**

 **The next chapter is currently in progress and already halfway through; it'll probably come out in late Dec, so don't get your panties in a bunch (Alpha (Guest), I'm looking at you)!**

 **And, yes, Archie is the same Archie from _RSE/ORAS_. Cameo alert (?)! Also, the **_Blue Pearl_ **is a heads-up to the _Black Pearl in Pirates of the Caribbean_.**

 **Review and question responses:**

 **GA Pokémon Fan** : _Ash won't be paired with anyone before the last installment, because that pairing will lead to the SM story I might write in the future. As for who Ash's significant other will be, I won't be leaking that information so early!_

 _Also, if you wanted to know some trivia, Leaf went with Blue while Red is Yellow's boyfriend/ex-boyfriend/re-boyfriend/ex-boyfriend/yadda-yadda-yadda. Trust me when I say that their relationship is rocky_.

 **Blue is the Sea:** _Thank you for your feedback! I think the destructive St Anne route is the best, because it exposes Ash to the horrors of the world and strengthens his resolve to end Team Rocket. Thanks for reviewing!_

 **Alpha** : _Yes, I do expect people to remember the nicknames I've given to Ash's team. I don't see what the hassle is. Its as easy as remembering Torrent, Dazed, Infernus, Bruiser, Seeker, Plume, etcetera from The Straight Elf's Traveler and Pyro, Sobek, Douse, Specter, Jasmine, Arctus, etcetera from Darkfire1220 Challenger. If you can remember all those names, you can surely remember the nicknames on this fiction._

 _Also, think I've explained the reason for my slow updates multiple times. You might not be concerned, but most of my future depends on my performance in the exams in February. I've shifted streams from Science to Arts and I need to put double the effort to achieve decent grades. So I'm sorry that you have a problem with this, but it can't be helped until March._

 **Bigxdevil** : _Most probably yes._

 **Thor94** : _Ash isn't the best trainer yet, but he's striving to be! And, yes, TR is the epitome of evilness; they're the biggest bunch of assholes (pardon my language) on the planet. As for Ash, he won't be merciless because that's just not him. He refrains from even hurting them and incapacitates them at minimum, but if it comes to extremes he'll do his best to keep them from dying. What else can you expect from a ten-year-old, eh?_

 **Rockingchampif** : _Thank you so, so much! I've been refraining from a major Ash v Gary battle until the proper moment, but I thought that I'd give a tribute to our favorite pompous trainer from Pokémon Tech. As for Chimchar, it'll be somewhat similar to the one in canon, with the whole unstable Blaze ability and whatnot. Yes, Ash is growing, albeit slowly, but in a couple years time he's going to be bigger than Red._

 _Thank you for your review as a whole, because the praise means a lot to me as an aspiring author. I hope you keep enjoying future chapters like the one before!_

 **If you liked the chapter, please favorite, follow and/or review! It means a lot to me :)**

 **Happy reading, everyone!**


	9. Tower Troubles

**Hello, everyone, and welcome to another chapter of _Trainer_! However, before we begin, I have an apology to make.**

 **Seems that some parts of the previous chapter were very similar, if not downright plagiarized, from _The Mortal Earth_ by _Mateusz_ , which is one of the few good Ash-journey-rewrite fics I've seen on FFn. Suffice to say that I was pretty irritated at myself. I'd been rereading TME a lot since chapter two was uploaded, so I guess it was just there somewhere in the back of my mind, just waiting to resurface. I know that it's a shitty explanation, and that it doesn't help this situation in anyway, but…**

 **My point is that I'm sorry, I made a mistake, but it still happened and I'm sorry. When I get the time to edit the previous chapters I'll be making some minor edits so it gets cleared up and I don't get angsty.**

 **I think that's it, really, because FFn has some rules that I don't wanna get caught breaking. Once again, I'm really sorry (I'm looking at you, _Mateusz_ ).**

XxXxX

 _Chapter Nine: Tower Troubles_

Two mornings later, Ash arrived at the outskirts Lavender Town.

He was dirty and sweaty and downright tired after so much traveling. His ankle had somewhat mended, although the constant walking hadn't helped the process. He was just thankful to his mom for packing a first-aid kit despite him not knowing.

He got a look at the real damage to his friends the morning after he'd captured Snorlax. Chimchar hadn't been hurt too bad, since he'd just been knocked out by a single blow from Snorlax. Ash frowned. He really needed to help his Chimchar to build up his endurance.

Zeus was fine as well. That Earth Power had been a bit too much, but he was in the same boat as Chimchar – both of them weren't seriously hurt and had been up and ready in almost no time.

Which was more than could be said for Delphi.

Delphi had taken the brunt force of Snorlax's Hyper Beam right in the back. Ash was worried whether her spine had broken and she'd been paralyzed, but it was nothing of that sort. Bird pokémon, however weak their bones were compared to others, could survive strong hits without severe damage. A few super potions had done the job, although he didn't let her out of her pokeball much. He wanted to have her checked by the Pokémon Centre in Lavender Town so that there wouldn't be any complications regarding her healing. It was well known that potions merely accelerated a pokémon's healing process; only a Pokémon Centre could fully heal a pokémon without any backlash.

Speaking of the Xatu, he was puzzled by her. Ever since she'd evolved, Delphi had been an enigma to him, like a completely different person. It was hard to get used to her new personality and behavior, which was far from the cheery yet fiery Natu he'd met on route one. Now, however, he was getting to understand something. She had been utterly displeased by their chosen sleeping place, and had denied sleep, choosing to wake up Ash several minutes before Snorlax had come upon them. How did she know? He needed to check that out.

He also needed to get some new clothes. His jeans had been ripped from falling so much and his t-shirt was torn in several places. His jacket and hat (which had been conveniently fallen alongside Snorlax's pokeball), thankfully, were as good as new, albeit a little worn out and incredibly dusty. He didn't know if Lavender Town had a clothes store or not, but he might as well try. He didn't want to roam around Kanto dressed like a homeless person.

Ash grimaced as he felt his fingers reach the lone ultra-ball on his belt which wasn't empty, which Saur had managed to snag from the pile of rubble with his vines (along with Ash's hat). He didn't know what to do with the Snorlax now that he'd captured it – should he release it or trade it over the GTS for a rarer pokémon? He knew loads of trainers would want a Snorlax on their arsenal – they were weapons that, if honed, could bring victory even in the grimmest situation.

It also didn't help that it tried to kill him, not once but several times. Ash had to grudgingly praise it for its resilience, although he didn't have to be particularly happy about it, since Snorlax's stubbornness had nearly brought him closer to the heavens.

Not to mention that raising a Snorlax was difficult. They ate a stunningly huge amount of food and weren't easy to maintain. They were also somewhat unreliable, since they were the epitome of laziness and gluttony, and it took a lot to rouse one from its deepest slumbers. There'd been products made specially for Snorlax that were the size of meat tins but could obliterate the gluttonous creatures' hunger in a matter of a couple minutes, but they were pretty expensive. He wished Red or Blue, or even Leaf, would take pity on him and help him out.

In the end he decided to hold onto it and make it a part of his team. His friends weren't that strong to take it singlehandedly right now, but he was sure that by the time he'd reach Celadon City they would be Snorlax's equal. Plus, he didn't want to let it go so easily. He and his team (not to mention that Nidoking, who hopefully hadn't noticed the missing plate on his back) had paid in blood and sweat to force it into submission. He would hold onto it for as long as he lived.

He shook his head, setting his thoughts aside. He walked towards Lavender Town to make his first stop – the Pokémon Centre.

XxXxX

Finding the Pokémon Centre was a rather arduous task. The locals were downright rude and simply brushed him off or ignored him whenever he approached one for directions. After several failed attempts he was furious, but fate allowed him to meet a pleasant, young couple who very eagerly pointed out the way towards his required destination. Ash dipped his head in respect and thanks before racing to the Centre, whose shape he could make out from the distance.

He rubbed his palms together as the cold air circulating the inside of the Centre washed over him, but it didn't affect him much – Lavender Town by itself was fairly chilly, which was odd considering that it was only mid-May.

Which meant that the Indigo Conference would commence in about a year's time. The League kept shifting the date of the renowned tournament to have skies full of clear weather throughout the event, so it was always around May or April. Last year it had been in January, which had been a surprise, although he supposed the League had its reasons.

He thought back to when he had begun his journey. It was coming close to three months since he'd left home, and he and his friends had grown exponentially strong. He could just hope that he'd become as strong as Red and make a name for himself just like his brother.

He was pulled out of his musings as he reached the front desk of the Pokémon Centre, where the Nurse Joy of Lavender Town flashed him a genuine smile. "Hello!" she exclaimed. "How can I help you?"

He set his clutch of pokeballs on the counter wearily. "My pokémon need to be healed up, please," he said with a slight yawn. Joy nodded grabbed the pokeballs before placing them on a tray with twelve pokeball holders. "I'd also like to book a room for the night, Nurse."

Joy nodded. "Alright. Can I have your identification please?"

Ash handed over his pokédex, which had been in his hand since he'd been anticipating that request anyway. He drummed his fingers on the counter as the nurse typed away on her sleek keyboard before looking up, hand outstretched as she held his device as well as a key card for his room. "It's done. I'll ring your room once your pokémon are all healed up. And I suggest you take a shower in the meantime – it looks like you've been in several rough spots."

Ash grinned, but nodded at her words. He thanked her once again before walking to his room. He really was tired.

XxXxX

Three hours later, Ash appeared at the front desk of the Pokémon Centre. He'd slept for quite some time after exiting his warm and pleasant shower, which only contributed to his drowsiness, along with the soft mattress he immediately jumped upon. He'd only woken up by the constant ringing of his room's intercom, or he'd been sleeping for an even longer period.

Joy readily handed him his team, with the exclusion of Snorlax. The woman's normal and cheery demeanor had completely faded when Ash reluctantly mentioned the gluttonous normal-type that had nearly killed him two days ago. The boy instantly steeled himself for the lecture that followed the narrowing of Nurse Joy's eyes.

"How could you be so irresponsible?" she demanded, her voice so sharp that it seemed to pierce him like daggers. Ash only gulped and wisely didn't answer, because if he knew one thing about women it was to not interrupt them while they were on a roll. "Your Snorlax has received a deep gouge to the stomach as well as its left shoulder, and there was enough poison in its system to wipe out several weaker pokémon in an instant. What were you doing, huh? Did you throw it on a pile of Toxic Spikes from the peak of Mt Silver?! And how the heck are you carrying seven pokémon anyway?"

Ash sighed. "My carry limit was lifted a month ago by Bill Goodshow," he explained. "As for the Snorlax, it was the same one that wreaked havoc on Route twelve, and it nearly killed me several times. I only got saved because a Nidoking nearly defeated it."

Nurse Joy pursed her lips, as if deciding whether to believe his story or not. He assumed she did, because she sighed resignedly. "Alright. Here is your Snorlax, but be careful. It's a bit tender and susceptible to a relapse, so don't expose it to any poison-type attacks until tomorrow. Is that okay?"

Ash nodded. He would use any excuse to keep the beast as far away from him until his anger and annoyance for Snorlax softened. He muttered a thank-you and was just about to leave before he remembered something. "If it's not too much trouble, could you please point me in the direction of the Pokémon Tower? I've been wanting to catch a ghost-type pokémon."

Joy chewed her lip nervously. "Alright…Just head East from here – its at the edge of town and near the mountains. Just make sure that you stay safe, okay?" she warned, her eyes examining him with concern. "The ghosts have gotten a lot more aggressive lately, particularly the ones at the topmost level."

Ash smiled. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Oh, and I suggest you talk to Mr Fuji first," she recommended, and Ash's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when he said the name.

"Mr Fuji? Like, Professor _Kageyama Fuji_?" he clarified. He'd heard the name several times before – Kageyama Fuji had been a renowned scientist back in the day. He was actually the one who'd headed the fossil regeneration team, along with Blaine, ex-Elite Four member and current Cinnabar Island gym leader. Fuji had also been a master in the field of genetics and cloning, and with several other scientists had managed to pull off the successful cloning of the first pokémon ever – Dolly the Mareep.

But his legacy had ended when he'd abruptly given up continuing his work directly after the great Kohto Civil War – something to do with his daughter what's-her-name being killed – and had decided to spend the rest of his life in Lavender Town, devoted solely to taking care of abandoned and mistreated pokémon.

Joy smiled. "That's the one. I'm sure he'll have a lot of interesting things about the Pokémon Tower to tell you," she finished.

He nodded. "I'll make sure to do that. Thanks for your help, Nurse Joy!"

She simply continued smiling. "No problem, Mr Ketchum. Stay safe!" she added as he rushed out of the Centre.

XxXxX

Mr Fuji's house was the biggest house in town – four stories tall – and was the only one without dull colors. Outside, near the fence, was a metal sign that read 'POKÉMON VOLUNTEER HOUSE'. Next to the house was a garden, where several, small pokémon – Oddish, Nidoran and the like – with a couple of teenagers overseeing them.

The door was slightly open, so Ash simply assumed that they didn't mind people barging in, so he shamelessly walked inside the house. It looked like the epitome of normality, except for the several playpens that gave the pokémon their own space. They were small pokémon; babies, Ash assumed, as he saw an Igglybuff giggle when it tossed a small ball of yarn into the air with its nimble hands, making him smile fondly.

Tending to these pokémon were a few people, consisting of both adults and children around his age. As he walked inside, a couple of them shot him intriguing looks and a boy prodded a girl in the shoulder next to him, causing her to look at him in brief surprise.

"Oh!" She smiled, pushing herself up and walking towards Ash. She looked only a year older to him and her long, black hair was tied in an elaborate ponytail. "Hello. How may I help you?" She was trying to restrain her blush.

Ash smiled back at the girl. "Hello," he replied warmly. "I was told that this is the Pokémon Volunteer House led by Mr Fuji…?"

Her lips stretched upwards. "It is. My name is Reina, and I'm one of the workers here, along with being Mr Fuji's granddaughter." Her back straightened as she said those last words.

"Well, I'm Ash. Anyways, I was wondering whether Mr Fuji was home. Nurse Joy suggested that I meet him, since I am headed for the Pokémon Tower in any case."

Reina's face darkened. "Unfortunately, I don't know where he is right now," she muttered. "In fact, none of us know. He's been missing for over three days now, and I'm thinking that I should've filed that missing complaint at the police station a while back."

Ash blinked. "What?"

"Mhmm." She nodded rather sadly. "We don't even know where he was planning to go. Maybe it's the ghosts hands at work," she mused.

"Huh?"

Reina sighed and motioned Ash to sit with her on a nearby couch. Once they were comfortable, the girl began. "Ever since the Pokémon Tower has begun being converted into the Kanto Radio Tower, has begun, the ghosts and spirits residing in there have become restless. This is understandable; nobody likes to lose their haven, and that is the same for ghost-type pokémon, however alien and different they are to us. However, the ghosts have become particularly vehement and aggressive lately, due to this act. They've been behaving nastily. One of the workers who had been helping in moving the graves to the House of Memories was attacked rather severely; he nearly lost an arm to an angry Haunter."

Ash cocked an eyebrow at that. From what Reina was saying, the ghost-types seemed to have it in for all humans. Suddenly he wasn't eager at the prospect to catch a ghost.

"But…Are all the ghosts angry in the Tower?" was all he could ask.

Reina shook her head. "Not all. Some of them are hardly affected by the destruction of their 'home'—" she said that with air quotes, "—but most of them are. Not all of them have murderous intent – Haunter are dangerous by nature anyway, so it's expected of them – but they are certainly riled up."

"So is the Pokémon Tower closed or something?" he asked.

Reina smiled. "Oh, no. The construction only started three days ago."

Ash frowned. "Isn't that when Mr Fuji disappeared?"

"…Yes," Reina admitted, her face darkening. "But whether there is a connection between these two or not, I can't say for sure.

"Anyway, make sure to visit only the first three floors – the upper levels, especially the topmost floor, is a favorite haunt for ghost-type pokémon. Although I'm not sure you'll find one, considering their dwindling numbers over the past few days."

And Ash, knowing that it was time to leave, bid the girl goodbye.

XxXxX

"Got 'em!" a woman exclaimed, flicking a strand of her golden hair out of her face as the ultra-ball on the floor stopped shaking and clicked. She wore a standard black uniform with a scarlet 'R' on her chest, marking her as a Rocket grunt. Her beady eyes glittered in glee as she walked over and picked up the capture device from the tiled floor. She took out her own pokeball and aimed it at the Raticate standing impassively in front of her, its tail flicking slowly. "Return, Raticate," she said, and the large rodent hissed as it was recalled in its pokeball.

"C'mon, Cassidy," the man next to her said, and the woman tossed the ultra-ball to him. He examined the sphere in his hand, and thought about pocketing the rare device before shaking his head; it wasn't worth risking the wrath of his superiors. He ran his hand through his hair – green hair, to be precise – as he tossed the ultra-ball in a sack containing a hell lot of pokeballs. He sighed as his companion started prancing around the fairly large room. "Quit playing around."

Cassidy huffed. "Stop bring such a bore, Biff."

"For the last damn time woman, my name is Butch!" Biff/Butch snarled. He smashed his fist into the floor in anger, instantly regretting it when pain seared through his bones. The tile under his hand cracked slightly, and he looked at it in slight fear, as if scared that the ground would give away.

"Whatever," Cassidy muttered with a roll of her eyes.

"All we need to do now is just catch a few more of those ghost pokémon, and then we're done!" Jessie said.

"Good. " Her partner – James – rubbed his palms together and breathed into them, shivering slightly from the chilled air. "I'm ready to blow this popsicle stand. This place is giving me the creeps."

"Meowth agrees," Meowth said. "Especially since that real ghost started appearing."

"Chill, Meowth," James comforted on instinct. "The boss just transported up this Silph scope, so if that spirit shows up we're gonna kick its associated into next year!"

"Shut it, you clowns!" Cassidy snapped.

Jessie glared at the other woman. "Who the hell are you to tell us that?!"

Cassidy smirked. "If you don't recall, Sir Proton kept us in charge of you twits, including the rest of the grunts. Ain't that right Chuck?"

"Leave me out of this," the man in question said, not even bothering to correct his name.

"How is the geezer holding up, anyway?" Jessie asked. "It'll be a shame if we lose such a valuable asset so quickly."

"He's still as defiant as ever," Butch replied as all four humans focused on him.

Kageyama Fuji was in a grim situation. His body was cloaked in dust and grime and his sweater-vest was torn in several places. Keeping him restrained were thick, bristly ropes that bound his legs and his arms behind his back. In any case, there was no need for the ropes, since the Rocket grunts had beaten him up pretty badly.

"Team Rocket," he uttered, his voice grave. "I should've known."

Cassidy smirked. "Yeah, you should've. Still, I can't believe it's really you. You look like a breeze'll knock you out in seconds."

Despite his exhaustion, Fuji mustered a hard glare. "I understand why you have restrained me – I stumbled on your operations and almost exposed you buffoons to the public. But why the child?" he pleaded, jerking his head to the lanky ten-year-old in the corner, whose eyes were lolled in the back of his head, his purple hair a mess as he lay unconscious and bound in the other end of the room. "Let him go. He has done nothing wrong."

"The twerp was there when we arrived, searching for them spooky ghosts," Meowth purred. "It ain't our fault if he followed us!"

"It's a good thing you came, anyway," James said. "Team Rocket was anyway going to extract you from your home in a few days. Once we're done here, we'll take you back to HQ and hand you over to the boss. He's really anticipated to meet you, and he'll surely give us a promotion for doing his work."

Fuji grimaced. "Why does your leader want me?" he asked, fearing the answer.

Butch rose to his full height and smirked. "Why else? Your work on cloning and gene-splicing is phenomenal. You headed the fossil regeneration team and successfully cloned a pokémon…but that's lame. Seriously, a _Mareep_? You could've at least cloned a Tyranitar or something! What a b—"

"What we're trying to say," Jessie interjected hastily, "is that your skills are needed at Team Rocket…again. It's time you finished what you started, Doctor Fuji. Project: Deoxyri-B needs your help."

Fuji's wrinkled features twisted into a scowl. "You think I'm going to come back and help you _monsters_?" he said in a snarl so vicious that the Rockets looked surprised. "You think I'm going to repeat creating that abomination that destroyed half of Kanto and Johto in a few days?! Too many people have died because of me…and I've sworn to do _nothing_ but good since that day. Nothing you say, or do, is going to change my stand."

Cassidy turned red with rage. "Listen, old man… You're going to help us conquer the world. Or else—"

"Or what? What are you clowns going to do? Kill me?" The old man laughed without mirth. "That's not going to happen – you need me. You need my mind, my brain, my knowledge. Without me, your "experiment" isn't going to last a second. There's no Amber this time…You can't threaten me with her life again. And that's another reason as to why I won't help you dunderheads: _you killed my daughter_!" he added, voice strangled with fury.

The Rockets were silent for a few seconds. "…The geezer's got a point there, Crotch," Jessie admitted.

Butch groaned. "Not Crotch!" he moaned. "Call me anything but that!"

"Speaking of Amber," Cassidy said, "We have a rather…interesting…proposition for you, Doctor." She seemed to grin as she bent down so that she was eye-level with Fuji. "You and I both know that we need you for this little thing Team Rocket is funding. And you and I both know that, every single day, your heart pangs for dear Amber." She sighed dramatically, and Butch sniggered. "So…would you like your daughter back?"

Fuji gulped.

XxXxX

The Pokémon Tower was enormous – at least ten floors high, with greenish-black walls. It was also fairly conical in shape, and had a domed top, with a long spire shooting upwards. As Ash came closer to it, he felt…unwelcome. Unwanted. He got the distinct feeling that something was warding him off, but it was too late to turn back now.

It was dim inside. Ash relied on his trusty flashlight to guide him through the eerie monument. His flashlight illuminated the path in front of him, as well as countless tombstones jutting out of the floor in rows. The place gave him the creeps but he steeled himself. He'd survived a Snorlax, dammit. He could not be easy to spook.

Ash reached for a pokeball and tapped the release, letting Saur loose. He felt much happier and warmer by his presence – he was glad to know that he wasn't passing through unknown land alone. Besides, he felt safer trekking through the melancholic spire with one of his friends on the outside.

The Ivysaur growled and stretched his limbs as much as he could before smiling at Ash, a gesture which he returned in full. "It's nice to see you too, Saur."

They walked through the tower for a while, searching for any inhabitants in said tower, which was a tedious task. There was not one ghost in sight (which wasn't saying a lot), but Ash didn't complain (much). Even Saur seemed weirded out by the lack of appearances.

They kept climbing stair after stair, searching high and low for the hint of a ghost. Disappointment started welling up in his chest, and he was tempted to keep climbing to the sixth floor as he stood at the base of the stairs that would lead him there. Reina's warning kept playing in his mind on replay, but in the end he decided to take the risk – he would keep climbing.

"This is boring," Ash groaned once he and Saur were done scouting the fifth floor. Saur grunted in affirmative, trotting next to his trainer. "I think the ghosts have left, buddy. Let's— hey!" he exclaimed suddenly, a thought striking his mind. "Saur, use Sweet Scent. Draw them out!"

Saur grinned as he understood what Ash was getting at and immediately tensed his legs before a cloyingly sweet aroma started to pour out of his bud. Ash couldn't help but grin as the pleasing scent pervaded his nostrils – the smell was fantastic, and he could never get used to it. He watched as the pink aroma diffused through the foggy air in order to draw out a pokémon.

Ash's triumphant grin faltered within minutes when there was no appearance of a ghost-type pokémon. He scowled, his shoulders slumping in annoyance and disappointment. "Let's go, Saur. There's nothing—"

He tensed and stopped as he felt a slight breeze on his neck. He whipped around, but screamed at the sight of two red and yellow eyes a mere inch away from his face. Ash scrambled back in fright and so did Saur, falling flat on his rear, his heart beating as the wraith giggled in amusement. But he grinned later when he recognized the intruder by its telltale necklace of red orbs its species were famous for.

The Misdreavus was around two-foot four, hovering in the air, its ghostly extensions for hair flowing slightly by nonexistent wind. The ghost-type giggled an echo, looking curiously at Ash for a moment.

Ash's eyes widened as his chance to capture a ghost-type literally began drifting away. His eyes snapped towards Saur, who looked back at Ash. "Saur, Vine Whip!"

A sturdy vine shot towards the fleeing Misdreavus, cracking like a whip as it struck the ghost. Misdreavus yelped in pained surprise as the vine smacked its ectoplasmic skin, throwing it to the side, where it tumbled in the air before coming to a halt.

The ghost-type stood still for a few seconds, during which Ash felt legitimately nervous and afraid, wondering whether the pokémon would turn on him. Instead, the Misdreavus whipped around, its grin transforming into a cocky smirk. It leered at Saur, although its eyes were twinkling with amusement.

Misdreavus hissed a challenge and Ash tensed as the shadowy creature began to rush at Saur. Fine by me, Ash mused to himself. A battle it is. "Saur, use—"

He never got to finish his sentence as the Misdreavus' suddenly fired a blob of ghostly energy with surprising speed, blitzing through the air as it left a trail of ominous black wind in its wake. Saur barely had time to blink before the otherworldly attack smashed into his face and popped in an explosion of black smoke and electricity.

Misdreavus cackled as Saur was sent reeling by the powerful Shadow Ball, but its eyes turned serious when the Ivysaur rolled onto his feet. Ash glared back at the ghost, clenching his fist as Misdreavus formed another Shadow Ball in front of its mouth. "Energy Ball!" he ordered. "Then Razor Leaf!"

Saur let loose a powerful surge of solar energy in the form of a sphere, which collided harshly with Misdreavus' Shadow Ball, resulting in an explosion of dust and smoke. Ash shielded his eyes as the wind streamed towards him, causing his hat to nearly fly off. Saur then grunted, the fronds atop his back tensing as he scattered several curved, sharp leaves from them. Ash grinned as the leaves spun and whizzed towards Misdreavus, who howled in pain as they slashed its corporeal form. The ghost plucked an embedded leaf from its ectoplasmic skin before focusing on its opponent once again.

The boy's eyes widened as Misdreavus sucked in a deep breath, then let loose a blast of icy air from its mouth. He hadn't fought a pokémon who could use that move, but he recognized it as Ice Wind. The fact that this Misdreavus knew it meant that it had trained with determination to master the move, which made Ash want to capture it even more.

He was shaken out of his musings as he felt the temperature around him drop, telltale signs that the gust of cold wind was approaching. The grass-type leapt away to dodge the attack, but his size, increased from evolution, prevented him from fully avoiding it. He shook away his fuzzy vision, the side of his head still having a thin layer of frost from the Icy Wind, although it was melting, and it irritated more than it hurt him. With an angry growl, he taunted Misdreavus to attack.

Misdreavus smirked before darting at Saur as it charged another Icy Wind to throw at its opponent. "Dodge, then Stun Spore!" Ash yelled.

The saurian adeptly pushed himself out of the way with his vines, and the gust of chilled air streamed to the floor, causing the tile to crater and a sheen of frost to develop in a small circle, while Saur unleashed a cloud of yellow spores on the specter. Misdreavus gasped and whipped at its opponent just as the spores settled on its corporeal form, and it froze abruptly as the spores finally did their work.

"Energy Ball!"

Saur blasted Misdreavus ruthlessly, causing the ghost to caterwaul in pain as it drifted away slowly, the orbs around its neck glowing. Ash grinned. "Vine Whip!"

The Misdreavus leapt for him once again once the vines that had struck it retracted. Saur rolled to the side, holding himself upright as Misdreavus smashed into the ground. He grunted, pawing at the tiles beneath his feet before grappling a recovering Misdreavus with his vines, holding the specter upright. The ghost writhed against its bounds just as Saur released yet another Energy Ball from his maw.

Misdreavus moaned in pain as yet another Energy Ball exploded in its face. The ghost unleashed twin beams of black energy and Ash ducked down as it nearly took his head off, scrambling away, and he sighed as the Misdreavus stopped in midair, face twitching.

"Power Whip!"

Saur's eyes gleamed as he released a vine, charging it with power as it glowed green. He held it a few seconds longer than usual, although Ash figured he was probably just focusing more energy to make it stronger, but the precious seconds he'd sacrificed for that power meant that Misdreavus had recovered from its momentary paralysis.

Misdreavus was forced to leapt aside as Saur whipped at it, arching its back and raising its corporeal body upright, hissing. The red and yellow eyes glowed menacingly with red energy, black electricity sparking around the creature as it opened its mouth to make a hollow, slow laugh—

 _Swirling sky, the colors of which scramble his mind, spirals of black twist in the air, Distortion swooping down, its serpentine body graceful and the six black streamers begin to flutter as it opens its maw to consume his soul—_

Ash gasped, a knot of pain in the pit of his stomach. He was lying face-down on the tiled floor, his breathing shallow and heavy. He tried to remember when he'd fallen, but he couldn't recall anything that happened ten seconds ago, and a wave of nausea almost made him hurl as he tried to reminisce the thing he'd seen in his vision.

Next to him, Saur was weaving erratically towards Misdreavus, his movements wild. His vines were whipping at the air, as if trying to knock down invisible moths. Levitating in the air was Misdreavus, whose normally cheery face was frowning slightly at the boy lying down. Instead of pressing the advantage, the ghost floated away after a second of hesitation.

"No…you…don't!" Ash wheezed, crawling towards the fleeing ghost. He forced himself up and detached an empty ultra-ball from his belt before taking aim at Misdreavus, although it was hard with his fuzzy vision and shaking body.

He hurled the ball with all his strength and nailed the Misdreavus on its back. Ash swore that he saw a smirk as the ball struck Misdreavus, snapped open and absorbed it in a flash.

The ultra-ball barely twitched for a split-second before it clicked.

Ash collapsed on his back in relief and took deep breaths to calm himself down. Next to him, Saur was recovering, the wild look from his eyes disappearing so that they didn't look like scarlet saucers anymore. His stocky legs were still trembling, and the Ivysaur was constantly shaking his head to clear out any confusion, although Ash was simply focused on what had happened not too long ago.

It could only be explained as a mental attack of some sorts. Misdreavus had most likely hit Saur with a Confuse Ray, and Ash, standing next to him, had come in his pokémon's way. The move had afflicted both of them, maybe even more for Ash.

But _why_?

Ghost-type attacks didn't affect humans (aside from psychic humans) a lot, mostly because they didn't have a lot of mental strength, latent or otherwise. Ghost attacks turned one's own mental powers against them, which was why psychic-type pokémon were so weak to them, due to their immense reservoirs of psychic energy.

Chill fingers brushed up his spine. Could it…? Could he be psychic? He could still feel his brain throb, as if part of it had turned into brittle ice, which meant that the Misdreavus' attack – his Misdreavus' attack, he realized slowly – was still affecting him. A lot. He'd never taken the tests, mostly because a psychic's powers manifested at an early age, and nothing like that ever happened to him when he was a kid. But now, especially after he'd reacted to a mental attack so strongly…

With a groan, he pushed himself up, vowing to investigate whatever had happened to him, but the time wasn't now. It still hurt as he thought about what he'd seen, the echo of it raw and painful in his mind.

"Good job, Saur." The grass-type simply grunted in acknowledgement at his trainer's praise, which consisted of a light pat on the head as well as a scratch under his chin along with the kind words. Saur shook his head vehemently, the trace of nausea still present in his scarlet eyes, although it vanished after a few blinks.

Saur snatched the ultra-ball from the floor and pressed it into Ash's hand, the boy smiling at his friend. Ash palmed the ball, fingers clenching around its smooth, circular surface, taking time to admire the sleek black and gold colors on the upper half. Ultra-balls were rare and really expensive, mostly because they offered a much better catch rate than pokeballs and great-balls, the latter of which were already good in that aspect. He was just happy that his friends had helped him acquire so much due to their hard work and dedicated determination on the St— on his travels.

He knelt down and held out a few berries, which Saur slowly nibbled on as Ash took out his pokédex in the other hand. He'd caught his ghost pokémon, and it was still only late in the afternoon, which meant he had enough time to train and then hit the sack. He pulled the newly-captured Misdreavus' data from the pokédex, which had already registered the information ever since its capture.

 _Misdreavus, the screech pokémon. Misdreavus is a mischievous pokémon that loves to frighten people with a creepy, sobbing cry. The red spheres around this pokémon's neck are used to absorb the feelings of others and convert them into nutrition._

 _This Misdreavus is female and knows the moves: Growl, Psywave, Spite, Confuse Ray, Curse, Mean Look, Psybeam, Shadow Ball, Icy Wind and Payback. Its ability is Levitate, which allows it to float and manoeuver over the field._

Ash considered Misdreavus' move pool thoughtfully. It – she, he corrected – had a mix of status and attacking moves at her arsenal. He could work with it.

"What d'you wanna do now, boy?" Ash said, scratching Saur under the chin. The reptilian grass-type shrugged in response. Ash smiled.

Then his smile disappeared when Saur's body tensed instinctively. The temperature plummeted a good ten degrees, and Ash froze in fear. The Ivysaur took a half-step back, a snarl building in his throat as his scarlet eyes glared daggers over Ash's shoulder. He felt scared to look behind him, but curiosity won him over and it was only a matter of seconds before he gave into the temptation.

A thin, sickly-purple fog was creeping into the chamber, making no noise as it did so. Ash could hear his own heart beating like mad through the silence. He silently cursed his luck and whatever higher power that wasn't watching over him. First, he'd been under the mild effects of a Confuse Ray, and now this?

He frowned as he noticed a silhouette through the purple fog, growing darker and darker by the second. He squinted as he tried to discern the figure by the shape, and the fog revealed it to be…a Mankey?

Ash blinked. "What the…"

The Mankey took another step towards Ash, the purple fog constricting around its legs. There was something…wrong with it. Its fur was grey, along with its darker grey skin – like in a black and white movie. Cracks were lined all over its arms, legs, the whole set. The eyes were the worst part. They were empty and black, devoid of anything, like wormholes. The Mankey limped slowly towards him and suddenly its right leg broke at the knee, like a clay model, but before the broken part could hit the ground, purple smoke and mud spilled out of the wound, and the leg stitched itself back almost immediately. What even…?

The boy shuddered in fear and disgust. "W-W-W-What's going on?!" he stammered. "Is that a…a zombie?!"

The zombie Mankey was quickly joined by two, then four, six, eight undead pokémon, and their numbers continued to grow until there was a whole army of them, ranging from Parasect to Machop to Goldeen. They all had similar features – thick, grey flesh, void-like eyes, cracks spread around their bodies like wrinkles, and several missing parts, like tails, legs, arms.

Ash scrambled back, eyes wide. This felt like a horror movie – one that was actually scary.

The animated pokémon corpses limped towards him like a horde of undead out for blood. A Squirtle at the frontline tripped onto the floor, its head hitting the floor and splitting open, ominous smoke leaking out from the wound. "This is all in my imagination," Ash chanted to himself in a whisper as the crevice in the Squirtle's head resealed, and it got right back up.

The purple fog around the corpses shimmered and hissed as it pushed the army further towards Ash and Saur. They were too fear-stricken to do anything other than stare as an undead Qwilfish opened its small, pink mouth and expelled a thick beam of black energy as a warning shot that struck a tile a blew it to smithereens.

That did it. "Saur, destroy them!" he yelled, all the while unclipped Hydrus' pokeball and setting the Golduck loose.

Hydrus flashed into existence just as Saur horizontally swung an extended vine at the horde of corpses. The green tentacle smashed into a zombie-Machop and split the reptilian fighting-type along its hip. Purple smog pooled out of the open wounds, but before the halves could rejoin, Saur hammered it multiple times until it was nothing more than fragments of decomposing flesh.

The stench hit him like a bullet train, but it didn't deter him. He saw Hydrus looking utterly perplexed, but Ash didn't have time to explain. "Water Gun!" he snapped. "We need to destroy them!"

Hydrus narrowed his eyes and immediately set to work. The Golduck's beak cracked open in an instant to release a high-pressured jet of water to snipe his opponents. The Water Gun struck a three-legged Growlithe corpse between its eyes with such force that it was decapitated in a split-second. The detached head flew away in a straight arc, disappearing from view while the rest of the Growlithe's body dropped to the ground, immobile.

Ash watched the proceedings with mild nausea and horror. While Reina had told him some weird and creepy things about Pokémon Tower, nothing matched this. He'd always thought of zombies as comical – dangerous, sure, but they moved so slowly and mechanically that Ash often scoffed at the protagonists in movies who tried to run away so fast. Now, however…he understood their dilemma without a word.

Saur unleashed two more pairs of vines that continued to grab pokémon bodies from the army and hurl them away, or hammer them enough number of times to disintegrate them. Hydrus was keeping them at bay with Water Guns, Scalds and the odd Psybeam, along with a Water Pulse every now and then to catch more than one.

Still, their efforts seemed futile. It looked like for every corpse they defeated, two more took its place, and the undead army kept advancing much faster than zombies were portrayed on TV.

Furthermore, the animated corpses seemed to be pushing him and his friends further and further to the top of the tower. Ash remembered Reina's warnings pertaining to the topmost floors, but it wasn't like he had a choice – the only other way to escape this house of horrors was to tear through the advancing army, and he had no doubt that he'd be swarmed by them the second he got close to them.

In any case, he needed to keep them at bay. If there was a window or something nearby, he'd most likely take a chance by jumping through there and hoping that Delphi would be fast enough to catch him. The Xatu was still tender and he certainly didn't want to risk her speedy recovery, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

As Saur sliced a Sentret to bits with Razor Leaves, Ash snagged Luna's and Delphi's pokeballs before setting the pair of female pokémon loose. The army of undead paused for a moment as the proud Xatu spread her wings and emitted a piercing shriek, but they continued their horrific walk as if nothing had happened. Luna cocked her head curiously at them, but the Clefairy looked a bit unnerved.

"I don't know what the heck is going on," he muttered under Delphi's curious stare, "but all I know is that we need to keep them far enough from taking us down. Go all out – don't hold back!"

Without a moment to lose, Delphi set off. The chamber was spacious and ceiling high enough for her to fly with little difficulty, which she proved as she soared upwards in a graceful arc before looping towards her opponents, wings flashing with steel-type energy. While maintaining the Steel Wing, she cracked open her beak and blasted two of the puppets – a Goldeen and an Ekans – with a Shadow Ball so dense that they were pulverized as soon as the concentrated shadowy blob detonated between them. There was a hiss of pain as her wings sliced through the corpses like a katana, felling them in an instant. Ash's heart leaped in his throat when he saw a particularly resilient Psyduck clinging onto her talons with its half-molded claws, but he breathed in relief when its grip suddenly went slack and it sank to the ground like a stone.

The boy frowned as he noticed something – the zombie-Psyduck had been as good as dead only when the ghostly fog had left its decomposing body. Maybe they were being controlled, somehow? If he could only test his theory by clearing out the smoke…

He cursed under his breath and launched himself up the next set of stair he found his back facing. His pokémon were making quick work of their foes, but there seemed to be an unending supply of them. Hydrus kept burning off their flesh with Scald; Delphi picked them up one by one with Psychic; Saur and Luna fended them off with Vine Whip and Magical Leaf respectively – but it still wasn't enough.

"Psybeam!" Ash yelled quickly, causing Hydrus' head to snap towards a nearing Spinarak. The gem on his forehead lit up and twin beams of psychic energy blitzed out of his scarlet eyes, blasting the possessed arachnid off the ground. It flew towards a wall where it met with an almighty crash before falling to the ground, its fragile, jointed limbs snapping off its thorax in an instant.

When the Spinarak dared to even twitch, Hydrus scratched its head off with his clawed, webbed hands. Toxic, purple smog oozed out of its neck along with its ghastly innards, pooling around the downed insect almost instantaneously.

"Gross," Ash uttered, wrinkling his nose in distaste as he backed up away from the advancing mob. Their numbers had diminished somewhat, but there were enough of them to pose a threat. Not to mention that Ash was scared out of his wits.

He decided to add another of his friends into the fray. Zeus appeared two seconds after he tapped the release button on his pokeball. The pink-skinned Flaaffy bleated, and jumped back when his eyes registered the unruly mob of zombie-pokémon crawling towards him and his friends. Zeus narrowed his eyes, but his mouth twitched.

Trust his trainer to fall into such a spot.

Zeus began zapping his enemies countless times with Thunder Wave. His plan was to render them immobile so that he could take his own sweet time to utterly demolish them – he liked to play with his food. Unfortunately, his initial idea didn't work, because they barely twitched when the thin lances of electricity struck them – maybe it was something to do with them being zombies, but Zeus didn't care. He skipped part one and went onto the next.

The first two Thunderbolts converted a Weepinbell into a smoking pile of ashes, while the next one blasted a Poliwhirl into oblivion. Ash couldn't help but wince a bit at his friend's ruthlessness. Sure, those…things…were asking for it, but he couldn't help but feel a bit sad for them. They were pokémon that had once belonged to trainers, after all. Just seeing them destroyed made him feel a bit guilty.

"Energy Ball, then Razor Leaf!" Saur grunted, first releasing stored solar energy by compressing it into a sphere before releasing a wild flurry of fast-flying leaves from under his bud. "Hydrus, Psybeam – Delphi, Drill Peck!" Ash called out next. The Golduck and Xatu readied their attacks, blasting and tearing through their opponents respectively. Delphi flew into the air, shaking her head to throw off a few grisly bits of the pokémon she'd just destroyed. "Luna, Pound! Zeus, Iron Tail!" Luna rushed forward, Zeus at her side as she drove her fist into a Larvitar's decomposing skull, causing the same, sickly-purple smoke to erupt from the wound as the lifeless rock-type crumpled to the ground. Zeus smashed his metallic tail into a Gligar's spine. The fly-scorpion pokémon's vertebra column snapped and it bent backward a hundred degrees at point of impact, the top half dangling and connected only by a few grisly bits of sinew. Nevertheless, it was out of commission.

There were only a handful of them left now – around thirty to thirty-five of them, their eyes void-like staring right back. For a second Ash felt a hint of hesitation and reluctance from their part, but he must've been imagining it, because they resumed their relentless onslaught right away.

Ash's heart was still beating fast, but he noticed one thing: the corpses never left the fog. Instead, the fog was always drifting a few feet ahead of the zombielike pokémon. Which meant that they were being controlled by the fog. And that meant…

"Delphi, Ominous Wind!"

The avian shrieked, flapping her powerful wings to reach the highest she could in such a chamber before concentrated otherworldly energy in her wings. She fanned the air, creating a gale of ectoplasm-laced wind so strong that a possessed Machoke was blown back. Its arm snapped at the elbow and it began to rise, but dropped to the ground like a sack of rocks as the purple smog surrounding it was blown away.

Ash held onto his hat as Delphi continued to flap her wings, and the boy did his best to hide his uneasiness from the wind-based attack. It wasn't like the one with the Misdreavus, but he could still feel twinges of discomfort as the air around him swirled with ghostly energy. He kept getting flashes of images in his mind – glowing, red eyes, a mask of gold, pitch-black streamers tipped with blood-red spikes – and that didn't make it any easier. He felt like just dropping to his knees and sobbing until his heart ached, but he didn't know why…

Delphi's Ominous Wind and the purple fog were locked in a stalemate. The Xatu shrieked as she pushed more and more strength into each flap, doing her best to overpower her gaseous foe while the rest of Ash's present team crushed the unmoving corpses. Apparently as long as they were not surrounded by the fog, they were next to harmless, but Ash didn't want to take any chances.

As soon as the last of the zombielike pokémon were obliterated, Delphi ceased her actions and pierced her way towards the ground, landing perfectly next to Ash's Clefairy, who dusted her hands in triumph. His pokémon formed a protective half-ring in front of him, and Ash contemplated recalling them and getting the hell out of here before the fog finally began to act.

There was a high, keening moan, and then the smog rushed towards an invisible focal point with such speed that it felt like someone had sped things up. The purple smoke coalesced, writhing and distorting when the vortex grew a pair of slanted eyes and a fanged maw. The end result was a gaseous blob of concentrated, black, ghostly energy, with a shroud of purple toxins, and Ash narrowed his eyes while growling at the Gastly's appearance.

Ash clenched his fists. Gastly were somewhat pranksters, but this one had scared the living crap out of him, and by the look on its face, the ghost looked like it had wanted to kill. And Ash was more than ready to return the favor. "Destroy it," he hissed, although he wondered briefly whether his friends would even be capable of that. "Delphi, grab hold of it with Psychic. When you do that, the rest of you attack it with all you've got! Understood?" he barked. They responded with a series of cacophonous sounds, which he took as a collective yes. "Go!"

Delphi's eyes glowed blue and she raised a wing as she expulsed her psychic powers, but the Gastly avoided the technique by dissolving into its own shadow before merging with Saur's. Ash's first friend yelped a grunt as the Gastly burst out from his shadow beneath him and slammed into his underside before knocking him away with a Night Shade. Saur snarled, the Ivysaur releasing his vines to grab the wraith, but it simply loosened the forces of attraction between its molecules so that the tentacle passed harmlessly through it.

Just as the Gastly reformed, however, it was blasted from behind by a snipe of electricity that ripped through the air before electrocuting the ghost. Gastly shrieked by the sudden attack and locked its furious eyes on a smirking Zeus as soon as the Thunderbolt faded, too angry to understand pain.

A Shadow Ball almost as big as its own corporeal form generated in front of its open mouth, but it was negated by an equally large Shadow Ball fired by Delphi. The two attacks burst right in Gastly's face, causing the ghost to reel back in pain and surprise from the sudden explosion. It contemplated disappearing in Ash's shadow, but it was stopped by a circumferential wave of psychic energy from Luna.

"That's it!" Ash praised, but he immediately wished he hadn't opened his mouth when the Gastly glared at him. He yelped as the living sphere of toxins and spectral energy rushed at him and he ducked, but not fast enough for him to avoid its fangs, which grazed along his forearm and drew a trickle of blood, and the shroud of toxins, which had suddenly flared due to the ghosts anger and had gotten strong enough to generate a rash on Ash's wrist by plain contact. Unfortunately, that was the last thing it ever did.

Saur was absolutely furious at Gastly for daring to hurt his trainer, which caused the saurian to continuously blast it with Energy Balls like a machine gun. By the time Saur had released his fourth Energy Ball, Gastly was done for, but that still wasn't enough for the Ivysaur to stop ruthlessly pummeling the unconscious specter. It was only Ash who managed to calm his friend down, although personally the boy partially wanted this crazed Gastly to be wiped off the face of the cosmos.

Still, it wouldn't do for the Gastly to just lay there and recover in a few days just to kill another wanderer. With a resigned sigh, Ash unclipped a pokeball and enlarged it. He could very well sell this Gastly over the network, or trade it for a pokémon that he wanted. He tossed the sphere on the downed ghost and watched as the sphere snapped open to emit a red beam…

…only for the energy to bounce off Gastly and the pokeball to drop to the floor.

Ash blinked. What?!

Gingerly, he picked up the pokeball and stared at it in surprise. Why hadn't Gastly been captured, or at least been absorbed? This was simply unheard of, unless the pokeball was defective, or if the pokémon…was…

Unless the pokémon was already owned by a trainer.

Ash's featured. "Damn it!" he cursed. "This thing already has a trainer!" he roared. The boy sighed upon noticing his friends' puzzled expressions. "Someone's been trying to…kill us. They've been using this Gastly—" he gestured at the unconscious ghost-type, "—to control those bodies and move us to the topmost floor. I don't know why," he added, noticing his team's inquisitive looks.

"Keep an eye on it, Delphi," he ordered. Without acknowledging the command, the Xatu levelled her eyes at the unconscious Gastly's semi-corporeal form.

He frowned in concentration, weighing his options. While he would very much like to beat the crap out of his assailants, he didn't exactly know who they were. They could be some punks who liked to scare the bejesus out of others, or even the workers who were busy converting the Pokémon Tower into the Radio Tower who wanted privacy a little too much. Still, he couldn't just let them get away – those zombies – or whatever the hell they were – nearly made him crap bricks, and he was ready to give whoever it was a piece of his mind.

Sighing, he motioned for his friends to follow him. "Come on," he said. "Let's go."

XxXxX

The journey through the next two, and the last two, floors was, thankfully, relatively mundane and boring. There was still fog obscuring his vision, but at least it wasn't the purple miasma that he'd come to hate.

His pokémon had chosen to walk in a specific formation – Zeus in the front, then Luna and Saur, with Ash between the two of them. If any wild pokémon tried to attack them, both Zeus and Saur would attack them while Luna would be on protection detail. That wasn't even mentioning they had Delphi to the left, Hydrus to the right and his Chimchar on his shoulder.

There was no way someone was going to get him.

By the time he reached the topmost step that would lead to the highest level, Ash was tired. He quickly recalled most of his pokémon, but kept Zeus outside. That way if it was someone shady who had planned the attack on him, then the Flaaffy would quickly take them out with Thunder Waves.

Balling his fists, he walked into the room.

The first thing he noticed was the six people in the room. Two of them were bound with tight, bristly ropes – a scrawny old man and a boy his age with thick, purple hair – while the rest were wearing what looked like uniforms. The blond and a green-haired guy wore pure black jumpsuits and the other two, whom he recognized vaguely, wore white ones.

But what really caught his attention were the huge, red 'R's printed on the front of their suits.

His blood ran colder than absolute zero and his features were locked in a rictus of fury. "Team Rocket!" he raged.

The redhead shot to her feet frantically. "Shit! How did this punk get here!?"

"Jessie, you twat!" the blond hissed. "Your stupid Gastly botched the plan!"

"B-But Cassidy, our defenses were impenetrable—"

"People said condoms were impenetrable, but look where that got me when I was twenty-one!" shouted Cassidy. Then she levelled her gaze at Ash and smiled in a sickly-sweet manner. "It's truly a shame you had to stumble upon our operations, dearie, just like the little boy over there, but there's no other choice but to silence you." She looked at the other Rockets, who eyed Ash nervously. "Jessie, James, Bach – kill him."

James looked violently ill at the idea. "Kill?" he spluttered. "B-But he's just a child!"

"That didn't stop him from kicking your arse at Viridian, eh?" She sneered.

"But still…"

Ash had heard enough. "Now listen here, you pricks," he roared. "I've had enough of you Rockets to last a lifetime, and after the stunt you pulled on the St Anne I swear I'll have your guts for garters, not the other way around. Got me?"

Next to him, Zeus flared with a sheen of electricity as he curled his fists.

Butch scoffed. "Listen, kid. We've had enough chumps who've tried to play the hero in the past, and most of them have ended up dead. Do you want your story to finish after ten years? What will dear mummy think? Just surrender. It'll be easier this way."

"I could say the same to you," Ash snapped. "Thunder Wave!"

There was a sharp _ZAP_! that pierced the air, like the sound of ice being dropped onto a hot griddle, and then a thin lance of electricity, courtesy of Zeus, ploughed at Butch, who ducked at the last second, the Thunder Wave striking the wall and fizzing out a second later. Butch rose, furious at the attack. "You little shit! Primeape, kick ass!"

Red energy coalesced into a Primeape, who smashed its fists together before jumping lightly in the air, signifying its readiness for battle. Five more pokeballs followed, releasing a Raticate, Arbok, Weepinbell, Kingler and a Koffing in quick succession.

Ash gulped nervously. He wasn't intimidated, but the battle seemed to appear for more difficult than he'd originally anticipated.

Wordlessly, he loosed the rest of his pokémon and then began giving them orders while the Rockets' pokémon prepared for battle. "Saur – Kingler. Chimchar – Koffing; Hydrus – Primeape; Delphi – Weepinbell; Luna – Raticate; Zeus – Arbok," he said, quickly and tersely. He didn't want to waste time by giving his pokémon precise orders – that would just give the Rockets more time to prepare themselves and he didn't want that to happen.

"Primeape, Thunder Punch!" The pigmonkey pokémon shrieked, its right fist encased in a shroud of sparks as it thrust said fist forward. The Thunder Punch caught Hydrus under the chin, knocking the Golduck skywards a couple inches before he crashed hard into the ground. With an angry quack, he rose, spewing a jet of boiling water that struck Primeape right in the snout, blasting the fighting-type back while also filling its nostrils with scalding water.

Elsewhere, Jessie's Kingler was surprisingly holding its own against Saur, who seemed frustrated by the fact that his vines did almost next to nothing against the crustacean's sturdy carapace. Luna was pounding Raticate into next week, while Delphi released constant waves of psionic energy that bombarded James' Weepinbell constantly.

There was an ear-splitting explosion as the Rocket's Koffing detonated with raw energy, flinging every pokémon nearby away from the epicenter. Ash winced, rubbing his ear furiously to drive the ringing noise away before he noticed his Chimchar laying unconscious. Gritting his teeth, he returned Chimchar and harshly clipped the ball back to his pokébelt.

"Give up, hero!" Cassidy yelled over the din of brawling. "There's no way you can win!"

Ash didn't even bother acknowledging what she said. Instead, he was entirely focused on giving his pokémon orders while also trying to inch closer to the kid bound at his side of the room. The trainer looked vaguely familiar, and Ash was subconsciously trying to place where he'd met him.

The Rockets, however, caught onto his sneaky movements. "Oh no you don't!" Butch roared. "Primeape, fuck that kid up – Thunder Punch!"

A piercing shriek split the air as Primeape punched Hydrus to the side and leapt into the air, eyes trained on Ash. The fighting-type's fists were flailing while also gaining sparks of blue-white electricity. It landed gracefully on all fours, grunting as it touched the ground, before lunging at Ash.

"Shit!" Ash screamed.

He ducked under the first jab, but the second Thunder Punch connected with his gut. He felt all the wind knocked out of him, and it hurt like hell, as if someone had smashed a block of concrete under his ribs. He flew into the wall and felt a jolt of pain shoot up his spine. His head was swimming in pain, but he was thankful for the electricity-resistant and force-hampering jacket he was wearing, otherwise he'd be dead.

"Ugh…" He groaned, clutching his stomach. His eyelids fluttered and he got glimpses of Primeape looming over him. Its eyes were wide due to anger and an overdose of adrenaline.

 _This is how it ends, I suppose_ , Ash thought to himself bitterly as blood collected at the back of his mouth. _I'll have my face smashed in_. But there was a sliver of hope within him that he'd survive this encounter, just like he'd survived several other dangerous situations.

Butch hovered right behind his Primeape, a look of pity on his face. "Sorry, kid."

Ash's heart hammered against his ribs. He watched as Primeape raised its arm, its fist sheathed in flickering flames.

"Puh-please!" Ash pleaded, feeling angry at himself for this moment of weakness and desperation. He felt his rage multiply tenfold when the Rocket didn't even bother responding.

He was secretly hoping for his friends to save him, but the Rockets and their pokémon had barricaded them from coming ten meters within Ash's range. Each time Saur tried to snake his vines through the wall of Rocket pokémon, Jessie's Arbok would spit acid, forcing the Ivysaur to recall them.

"Are you sure you wanna kill the kid, Bart?" Jessie asked nervously. She looked sick, as if the idea of killing someone nauseated her. Why the hell had she become a Rocket then anyway?

Butch shrugged, as if murdering was as easy as breathing for him. "We have to. Petrel told us to… exterminate anyone that purposefully interferes with our operations."

Ash coughed up blood in his throat, his eyes never moving from Primeape's intimidating form. It was grinning – smirking, damn it, infuriatingly so – as it eyed Ash in sadistic glee. When it was finally done humiliating him, it moved to crush his skull.

With the aim of someone that had spent most of his childhood spitting at Gary in anger, Ash hawked up the clod of blood in his mouth, the projectile hitting Primeape straight in the eyes and hampering its vision. As it gurgled in annoyance, Ash rolled to his side, allowing the flaming fist to embed itself where his head had been mere seconds ago.

The boy continued to roll towards his right, dimly hearing Butch yell something that sounded like 'Get him!', avoiding every single attack that came his way. Acids sizzled on the tiled floor, Water Guns washed them away, Razor Leaves passed overhead, one slicing off a lock of his hair. When he came to a halt, he used up his first defensive mechanism, palming the seventh pokéball on his pokébelt and tapping the release button out of sheer reflex.

He immediately regretted as the red beam coalesced into the buff and massive form of his Snorlax.

"Holy mother—" Butch yelled as Snorlax began to register its surroundings.

Cassidy was equally pale. "Crap!"

Snorlax just looked on with a docile, albeit perplexed, expression. It was no longer hungry and content, but something was wrong. It was no longer in its home, in the wilderness, smashing trees down as a testament of its raw, brute strength. Instead, it was encroached in a confining room – the normal-type's triangular ears were just a couple feet away from touching the ceiling – and in front of it were several other pokémon, all of them tensed and ready to attack.

Snorlax picked up on their hostility, but didn't do anything. If it would remain silent they could all go away without scars—

The Arbok suddenly reared up, hood fluttering, and it spat a gunk of poisonous goo that splattered against Snorlax's belly, making the creature wince in pain form the debilitating toxins.

Then all hell broke loose.

With an almighty roar, Snorlax raised both arms before smashing its claws into Arbok's underbelly, causing purple scales to rip away and leave the harmed area raw exposed. The serpent hissed before jabbing its now-pointed tail into the offending pokémon's arm, making it groan as it was struck by the Poison Sting.

"Saur, Energy Ball on Kingler!" Ash bellowed through the mayhem. Miraculously, Saur caught onto the order and smote the crustacean in the face with an emerald sphere of energy. The Kingler staggered back, momentarily stunned, and James' Weepinbell unintendedly hammered its armored carapace with a barrage of grass-type moves.

Ash sprinted over to the unconscious kid tied up in the corner. He had no time to remember his name as he pulled out his survival switchblade and began to cut at the thick, bristly ropes binding the trainer together. Once he was free, the purple-haired boy fell limply at the ground, head hitting the floor with a clonk.

Ash gritted his teeth. "Wake up, you dingus!" he slapped him twice but to no avail. It was only when he saw Hydrus firing a Psybeam at Snorlax (who decided that everyone was its enemy) that he fished for his canister of water and emptied the contents in a jiffy, pouring the liquid over the boy's head. He flinched and woke up with a start, reflexively punching Ash in the shoulder.

"Get away from me, you filthy Rockets!" he screamed.

"Whoa, whoa!" Ash held up his hands in surrender. "I come in peace!"

The kid was still holding his fist up, but no longer looked like he wanted to beat the crap out of Ash. He continued. "Look – Paulo, isn't it?" Ash took a wild guess.

"Paul," the boy snapped.

"Okay. Look, you need to send out your pokémon. Y—"

Paul suddenly pushed him away, using the knockback to fall flat on his stomach as a jet of water sailed towards them and struck the space between. "I get your meaning," he muttered impassively, grabbing three pokéballs and enlarging them. "Grotle, Poliwhirl, Lairon, standby for battle!"

Out came a Poliwhirl, a large grass-type that was probably Turtwig's evolved form, and a lizard-like creature with an underside of hard stone and a carapace of silver steel burst out, before Paul began to give commands. "Water Pulse, Iron Head, Body Slam, Metal Claw, Bite, Mega Punch, Razor Leaf!"

Ash was surprised at the series of commands, and even more surprised as Paul's pokémon carried out the orders with only brief moments of hesitation. Paul looked absolutely sure of himself, calmly giving further commands once his pokémon had executed them. Ash did his best to imitate his companion.

Meanwhile, Snorlax raged out all of its anger and frustration on any pokémon that came within its line of sight. Some froze under its glare, allowing the beast to pummel them before they retaliated. Even Ash's own pokémon weren't saved from that fate, and swallowed their fear and began attacking the monster as soon as it even glanced in their direction. Snorlax rampaged through the domelike room, striking down anything in its path.

Despite its power, Snorlax was just one against many and, just as a mighty man could be felled by a single arrow, so too could a berserker crumple with a well timed shot. The numbers were too much for the normal-type, the Rocket pokémon swarming it and attacking it from all sides. Collectively they were all much powerful than the Nidoking in the forest, and they attacked it with all they had, pinning the fat pokémon down and pummeling it until it was no more in the realm of consciousness.

Ash watched in shock as Snorlax lay unmoving. His best hope had failed. While the Rockets and their pokémon were certainly tired, so we're Ash's and Paul's. Snorlax hadn't even bothered to discern between friend and foe – he'd simply unleashed carnage upon anyone who had the misfortune to meet him.

"Fuck off, kid," Cassidy growled. "Raticate, Hyper Fang!"

The savage rodent snarled, spittle and saliva flying from its mouth as its fangs lengthened temporarily, gaining a cloak of pure white energy. It rushed Ash, but Paul ordered his Poliwhirl to intercept, the amphibian lunging a few meters in front of Ash and taking the brunt of the bite. It grimaced as the canines dug into its arms, drawing a trickle of blood, but it hammered the offending pokémon with a Mega Punch that forced the savage rodent to let go and attack from a different direction.

And the battle began anew. Attacks flew into the air, some crashing into their targets while others missed. Ash managed to recall an unconscious Delphi just before Jessie's Arbok stabbed her with a Poison Sting. In retaliation, Saur wrapped his vines around the serpent and restrained it, allowing Paul's Poliwhirl to knock it out with a couple of Mega Punches.

Then there was a flash of silver through the corner of his eye and Ash whipped around just in time to see that damnable talking Meowth plummeting towards him, claws enlarged and as thin, like hypodermic needles. He had no time to move, and a scream was half formed in his throat, but suddenly Paul snagged the feline out of the air with his backpack and charged it towards the wall, the Meowth hissing and yelling for the boy to let him go all the while. That was until Meowth was sandwiched between the backpack and the wall, where it slumped to the ground.

James yelped at Meowth's unconscious form. "Meowth!"

Butch growled. "That's it." The green-haired man pulled out an Eagle from his holster, along with a silencer from the other side of his pants. He pointed it at Ash, his finger on the trigger, but suddenly a grassy-green tentacle wrapped around his wrist and pulled it down – Saur. The Ivysaur growled angrily, stuck in a game of tug-of-war with the Rocket grunt until the trigger was pulled, letting out a muted gunshot as Saur hissed a split-second later. His trainer paled as he saw a bullet-sized hole in one of the fronds supporting his bud.

Rage filled him. "No!"

And then cold filled the room.

Everybody froze as the temperature around them suddenly dropped by a solid ten degrees. Saur, ignoring the brief pain in his frond, let go of Butch, while the man's grip around his gun slackened, not even caring as the weapon clattered harmlessly on the ground. Ash looked around the room and realized it had darkened. He had the feeling that something was about to go horribly wrong…

 ** _GETOUTOFHERE!_**

His eardrums almost burst as the harsh words echoed in his mind. He wanted his head to explode so that he would be relieved of the uncomfortableness and pure agony, and as he looked around he noticed that everyone else had clamped their hands over their ears, even though the words had been spoken telepathically. The pokémon in particular were freaking out. They looked ready to bolt out of the room at a second's notice.

And then he felt it, too. It was like the air was heavy, like a storm was about to burst out at any moment. He could feel a thrumming in his bones, and it felt as if an invisible hand was pushing him down, as if wanting to flatten him like a piece of paper on the ground. And he knew that feeling. The Pressure around him was unmistakable.

A wisp of purple and black smoke swirled in the center of the room, before getting bigger and bigger and bigger until it was nothing more than a swirling storm of ghostly energy that suddenly obtained demonic, red eyes and a gaping maw of white that kept emitting spectral light. Its mouth was open as if in a never-ending moan, and crudely shaped black arms sprouted from either side, otherworldly light dripping from them onto the ground.

Once again it droned, **_GETOUTOFHERE!_**

"B-Butch," Cassidy stuttered, "the Silph scope!"

Butch didn't even realize that Cassidy had said his name correctly, so shocked he was. Nevertheless, it took a few moments for him to fumble with a strange device that vaguely resembled a pair of binoculars. "Get it, Hydrus!" Ash ordered.

Hydrus nodded and tapped his bejeweled forehead, unleashing his inner psychokinetic powers. The Confusion attack was mild enough to repel Butch without severely hurting him, and the Golduck telekinetically pulled the Silph scope towards them and directed it towards Ash, allowing it to perfectly set on his face without hurting the boy.

There was a brief moment of darkness in front of him before Ash pressed the button at the side of the scope, allowing the screen in front of him to flare to life. Everything was tinged blue, with an outline of mossy-green, but he had no time to check everyone's heat signatures. Instead he moved the scope towards the vortex of otherworldliness. For a second the thing was just as it was, then the screen flickered. First it appeared as an emaciated skeleton, halfway through the ground, raw and decomposing flesh still clinging to parts of bone as blood and gore formed a pool at the base. Then it changed into something of a Haunter, except that the ghost was pure white and had grotesquely long, thin limbs. Then the screen flickered for the final time, revealing the visitor's true form.

It was a Marowak, but something was… _wrong_ …with it. It looked to be in constant agony, and the exoskeleton-skull had a bullet sized hole right between the eye holes. The only other difference was that the ends of the bone club it carried were engulfed in black flames.

Ash noticed that the spectral vortex was nothing but a protective shroud around ghost-Marowak. It brandished the flaming bone club at the Rockets and then hurled it at them like a javelin, a stream of black smoke trailing it and striking Cassidy in the chest. There was a crack of bones and the blonde Rocket was sent flying straight into the wall as the bone returned back in the ghost's hands.

Cassidy's Raticate, enraged, snarled at the ghost and rushed at it, but was trapped in the swirling vortex. The rodent was tossed around like a plaything until it was thrown back at the ground. It was hurt and dizzy, but not yet unconscious.

"It's a Marowak," Ash muttered.

The conscious Rockets seemed ready to piss themselves. Even their pokémon seemed nervous. Meowth in particular look ready to bolt. "Shit!" cried Butch. "It's that godforsaken Marowak!"

Jessie moaned. "It's come back to haunt us!" she wailed. "It's all Cassidy's fault – she killed it!"

Hate and rage bubbled back to the surface the second Ash heard this statement. "You what?!"

Nobody bothered to elaborate.

"Meowth is thinking it's 'bout fucking time we got da hell outta here, Jimmy," Meowth stuttered.

 ** _YOU SHALL NOT PASS!_** the Marowak screeched, rushing to block the only exit. The screen of the Silph scope died for a few seconds before coming back on. Desperately, Jessie threw a pokéball at the creature. It was sucked in before it had the chance to comprehend what had happened; the temperature started increasing and everything went still.

Then the pokéball burst open with such force that it snapped into two halves before shattering into pieces. Jessie shrieked and tried to make a run for it, but the Marowak tossed its ghostly club at her, smacking her on the back of her head. She didn't get back up.

 ** _YOU DARE!?_** It looked utterly enraged, but shrieked in pain as a Water Gun from Kingler hit it right in the torso. Ash realized that it could be hurt – it hadn't become a true spirit, after all.

"Kill it with fire!"

The Ghostowak (as Ash had begun calling it) began to attack with unrestrained dogma. First fell Meowth, followed by Saur, Paul's Grotle, the Rockets' Kingler and Raticate and Primeape until all that was left was a handful of pokémon collectively. Ghost-Marowak seemed to be hurt equally, and Ash was incredulous at the calm and collected way Paul was ordering his pokémon. His Lairon raked the spirit with its claws, while Poliwhirl and Ash's Golduck distracted it with short bursts of water that seemed to be doing more damage than other kinds of attacks.

Finally a Psybeam from Hydrus, who was the only remaining pokémon conscious, felled the enraged spirit. The translucent form of the Marowak shrieked unearthly, then the gas and smoke was sucked into a central vortex. The Marowak looked incredibly hurt, but also at…peace. Its features turned from hateful to enlightened for a brief moment, before it imploded and disappeared from their lives.

A concussive blast happened the moment it imploded, sending a circumferential ripple of energy that knocked everyone away. Their pokémon's limp bodies were pushed away on the ground, but the humans were blown away like ragdolls. Paul hit the wall with a thud, while Jessie and Butch piled up on each other. Ash wasn't better off, though. He smacked leg-first into the wall and felt himself lose feeling in his legs.

He felt the wind knocked out of him, his vision darkening due to lack of air. Then, for the umpteenth time, Ash Ketchum blacked out.

XxXxX

A few hours later, Ash woke up in unfamiliar surroundings. He was lying in a comfy bed, sheets covering him up to his chest. The air smelt somewhat similar to his home – crisp and sharp, yet putting him at ease. A short distance from the foot of his bed was an open doorway that led up and downstairs. At the other end of the room was a desk, upon which an alive laptop whirred as it processed data.

There was a soft knock at the door that made his head turn and his eyes soften. Standing there, hesitant, was Fuji's granddaughter – Reina, blushing slightly as she held a cup of tea in her hand.

"May I…?" she whispered.

"Uh, yeah. Sure." He sat up straighter and propped himself on his elbows, pushing the bedsheets off him. His legs ached like hell. Reina pulled a chair and placed it next to the bed before sitting.

"Drink. It's tea."

"Thank you." He took the cup and took a hesitant sip. It was sweet and hot, but not cloying and scalding. It had the right amount of sugar and warmth to it that made him feel lazy. Reina just watched as he drank, and once he drained it she took it from him and held it in her hands.

He licked his lips off any remaining tea and smiled weakly at Reina. "Uh…How die I get here?"

She smiled. "That was grandfather. He called a few of the volunteers and brought you and the other boy – Paul – over here. Your pokémon are fine, by the way."

"And the Rockets?" he asked, clenching his fists.

Reina frowned. "Yes. Them. Grandfather called the police force. Needless to say, they will be locked up for quite some time."

"Good." He meant it, too. He didn't want those disgusting criminals to get away with their crimes, even though he felt a bit sorry for those three blundering fools Jessie, James and Meowth.

"What we're they doing there, anyway?" Ash asked, frowning.

"Emptying the Tower of ghosts," she practically hissed. "They entered the Pokémon Tower under the guise of Radio Tower workers and smuggled captured ghost-types out of there through their fellow Rocket grunts. Apparently the ones in charge of smuggling had left a few hours earlier to complete the transfers. They've been doing it ever since the "construction" began, and grandfather went to investigate the reducing appearances of the wraiths. And they took him by surprise and held him hostage."

She brushed the hair out of her face. "Anyway, we found a few pokéballs still with them and released the ghost-types back into the Tower. They weren't pleased."

"I can imagine," Ash replied dryly. How many times had he stumbled across Rocket operations and shut them down – three, four times, now? Maybe he could make some League trainers travel with him. At least then the next time he wouldn't be hurt in the process…

"Anyway, do you want to leave? You've been alright for some time now, but you were still sleeping."

He shrugged. "Alright." He spun his legs off the bed and stood up, wincing briefly from the ache in his legs. Damn. He ought to be careful for some time, at least.

Ash followed Reina down the stairs. He was thinking about the enraged spirit he'd seen in the tower. Even musing about it sent shivers down his spine. It felt…unreal.

When he reached downstairs, he smiled. It looked the same as it had when he'd come just several hours ago, except for the presence of Paul and Mr Fuji and the absence of the melancholy and worry that had made the air heavy earlier. The pokémon seemed happier, and Kageyama Fuji smiled as he stroked an Oddish in his arms while a Rattata and a Pikachu clung to his back.

Fuji looked up and grinned at Ash. "Ah! Welcome, Ash. We were wondering when you would join us from your deep sleep."

Several of the workers chuckled and Ash blushed despite himself. All volunteers were looking at him with pride and happiness and praise in their eyes, and Ash appreciated it. The boy smiled at Paul, but the purple-haired trainer stared back with dark, brooding eyes, his face a mask of emotionlessness. Unnerved, Ash looked away.

"We owe you a great deal, Ash," Fuji continued. "Without you, Paul and I would've been held hostage for an indefinite amount of time and Team Rocket would've gotten away with their nefarious plans."

"It was nothing," Ash said, embarrassed. "I just did what anyone else would've done."

"Ah, but the fact is that you did do something, Ash, and not run away like another trainer would've," Fuji countered. "But anyway. What's done is done. We're all safe, and Team Rocket is paying for their crimes."

At the last few words, there was a flash of emotions in Fuji's eyes. It was nervousness and…was that guilt?

"Anyway, what will the two of you do now?" Fuji inquired.

Paul was the first to answer. "I'll be continuing my journey to Fuchsia, even though I didn't get a ghost as I wanted two. Celadon had already been conquered, and now it is time for my fifth badge."

So he's already defeated Erika, Ash mused. Then he shook his head. "Well, I'll be heading for Celadon City. I've always wanted to explore that departmental store of theirs, and I'll need to challenge Erika for the Rainbow Badge. I already caught a Misdreavus from the…y'know."

He looked at Paul when he said the last part, curious to see a reaction slip up front eh otherwise impassive boy, but Ash was disappointed to see only mild interest leak into the boy's eyes. Must be pretty great at controlling emotions.

Fuji scratched his chin. "So the both of you are aiming for the championship title…I might have something that would help you. Follow me."

Fuji led him and Paul to the third floor, and then later into a room that was an office of sorts. The wall was lined with shelves that held books for both pleasure reading and increasing one's intellect. Research papers were smeared over the large mahogany table that held an amazing laptop, and he just tossed the papers aside as if they were nothing. Fuji shut the laptop and placed it on his bed before heading form a cabinet and rummaging through the items within.

Moments later, he came out with a briefcase that looked like it was used for high-level security, like for the energy amplifier that Surge had talked about. Fuji rolled in the passcode and flipped the briefcase open, showing Paul and Ash its contents.

It was a collectors delight. The Stone family would pay with their lives for such an ornate collection of gems. The round stones, just a bit smaller that pokéballs, were lined carefully on a silk seat. They gave away colors that Ash had never seen. They weren't evolutionary stones, Ash knew that much. Although each of them filtered different colors, they each had an S-shaped insignia in the center, like DNA.

While Paul (who was so surprised that he want even aware of his emotions beings given away) and Ash looked at the colorful gemstones with gaping mouths, Fuji pulled out another surprise. This time he brought out a smaller case filled with identical, spherical gemstones – although they were much smaller, kind of like a minimized and empty pokéball, they had were pale blue-green and had the same S-shaped mark.

Fuji chuckled. "Incredible, aren't they?"

"I…I can't even…" stuttered Paul.

"I understand you," Fuji said. "Even I was just in such wonderment and incredulity when I first laid my eyes on these beautiful objects. I remember when Gurkinn and I turned searched every corner of the world searching for them once we found the first…"

"But…What are they?" Ash asked.

"The larger ones are megastones," Fuji said as cryptically as he could. "The identical ones are called keystones."

"Do they help pokémon evolve, like fire stones and thunder stones do?"

Fuji shrugged. "In a way." He ran a wrinkled finger along the line of stones, which rolled under the movement. "They help certain pokémon achieve a state known as Mega Evolution."

"Mega what?" Ash asked.

"Mega Evolution," Fuji repeated.

"What Evolution?" Ash said, grinning as he tried to make a joke.

Fuji sighed. "Mega."

"Mega," Ash said.

"Evolution."

"Evolution."

"All together…"

Ash gasped mockingly. "You…You don't mean…That's…" He sighed. "You know what, forget it. I lost the joke."

"That, you did." Fuji chuckled. "Anyway, where was I? Yes. Mega Evolution is a form of evolution. I haven't fully understood the mechanics of it, but if you really do then do purchase a book by one Professor Augustine Sycamore: A Guide to Mega Evolution. I know, it's not that good a name, but it can't be helped. Anyway, Mega Evolution is only temporary. Oh, yes," he added, noticing the looks of disbelief and incredulity on their faces. "It's true. Very few trainer not belonging to the League use Mega Evolution. And the higher members of the Pokémon League – such as first class ACE trainers, the Elite Four and the champion – and handed keystones and megastones for use, simply because of the sheer rarity of them. It is a wonder that Gurkinn and I managed to recover so many of them."

"But that completely defies the mechanics of evolution!" Ash exclaimed.

Fuji nodded. "Yes, but I don't know why. You can ask someone like Sycamore, or Charles Rowan. I just studied genetics and cloning. But one thing is clear – the bond between the trainer and pokémon must be strong."

"What do you mean by bond, exactly?" Paul asked sharply.

"It means that the trainer and pokémon must have an unbreakable bond of unconditional love and trust," Fuji explained, much to Paul's shock and nervousness. "The trainer and pokémon must be able to act as a single being – only then can Mega Evolution be successful."

Ash grinned. He loved his pokémon with all that he had. He was sure that he and his pokémon would be an to attain that state if they got a megastone and keystone.

"Why haven't we heard about this phenomenon before?"

"Because the sky is blue and one day we all will die," Fuji snapped, a bit annoyed. Then he sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry. It frustrates me that I do not have much knowledge on certain topics."

Ash nodded. "So, why are you showing these to us?" Paul asked. "To make us feel jealous?"

Fuji chuckled. "No, only the fact that the two of you had at least one pokémon that could Mega Evolve," he said. "But only a handful of them can undergo this process, but it is not clear why. The fact is that you, Paul, have a Lairon, whose evolved form, Aggron, can Mega Evolve; and that you, Ash, have a Flaaffy and Ivysaur whose evolved states can both Mega Evolve.

"So this is my gift for rescuing me and saving our town's precious ghosts – a megastone and a keystone for the both of you. Paul, here is your Aggronite and keystone." He handed over one of the pale, green stones and one of the megastones that was half silver and half black. The purple-haired boy took the objects reverently, and bowed to Mr Fuji.

"Thank you, Fuji-sama."

Fuji waved off the thanks and looked to Ash. "Now I cannot hand over both Venusaurite and Ampharosite to you, as that would be impartial to young Paul here. However, I will let you choose, Ash. You decide."

Ampharos or Venusaur. That was a tough decision to make. He wished he could release Saur, order him to put both Paul and Fuji to sleep so that he could take both megastones and perhaps even the briefcases and make a run for it. Paul looked at him as if he was expecting him to do just that.

In the end he decided to go with the Ampharosite. While he wanted to make his starter an even bigger powerhouse, he leaned more towards his equally loyal Flaaffy. He voiced his decision.

"The Ampharos-wotsits, then," he ground out reluctantly.

"The Ampharosite." Fuji said. Paul looked a bit impressed at the fact that Ash hadn't done what he'd been fantasizing about.

Fuji handed over the large megastone – half golden-yellow and half dark-brown – and the keystone, that shimmered in the light. Fuji even handed over a bracelet to hold the keystone so that the boys could wear it.

"That settles it, then," Fuji muttered. "Goodbye, the two of you. I wish you luck on your journeys."

The two of them muttered grateful thanks before rushing downstairs, each of them looking gleeful. Paul turned to Ash, a serious expression on his face. Then he began to talk.

"I had promised to have a battle with you the next time we would meet," Paul began. "But it looks like we'll have to postpone unto a later date. Don't slack off, Ketchum. I don't want to win easily – I would like you to be a challenge."

Ash scowled at the implied defeat, but didn't say anything as Paul left immediately without bidding goodbye to the rest of the volunteers. Ash waved them goodbye and turned to leave, but was stopped by Reina.

"Ash!" she exclaimed, rushing up to him just as he stepped out of the door.

"Yes?" He noticed her wringing her hands. Her cheeks were tinged red.

She bit her lip nervously. Closed the distance between them until they were mere inches apart. Ash tugged at his collar. "I wanted to say…Well, thank you, Ash, for rescuing the ghosts and bringing my grandfather back in one piece. It would be really bad if he wasn't."

Then she leaned forward, making his eyes widen, and brushed his lips softly against his cheek. He felt himself burn the next second when she pulled away and blushed furiously, not meeting his eyes. "Y-You can come back anytime, A-Ash."

The she slammed the door shut.

What the heck?! Why the hell did she just kiss him?! He didn't know if he appreciated it or despised it (he was still between the 'Girls are icky!' and 'Girls are the greatest thing ever!' stage), all he knew that he was very confused.

He shook his head and began to walk towards the Pokémon Center, still unable to drive away the blush from his cheeks.

 _Girls_.

XxXxX

Ash left the next day early in the morning – seven thirty, to be exact. He'd slept for a long time at Fuji's house, and his body didn't need to rest for much longer during the night. He'd given all of his seven – now eight – pokémon to Nurse Joy for a thorough checkup so that his buddies would be as good as new when they began to travel again.

There weren't a lot of trainers on the road, maybe because they didn't want to go to Lavender Town, where the rumors of angry ghosts still lingered. Ash trained his pokémon during the battles that the did accept, keeping Snorlax and Misdreavus in their pokéballs, mainly because he was sure the former would flow into a rampage and he wanted to introduce the latter properly to the group.

At midday, they found a secluded spot at decided to have lunch. Ash set his team loose (again, except for Misdreavus and Snorlax). Before they began eating lunch, Ash clapped his hands to gain their attention.

"Okay everyone, we're going to meet a new teammate," he said, and Saur and Zeus exchanged glances, as if expecting I-wanna-be-a-pokémon-master-will-you-join-me routine. Ash didn't blame them – he'd practically memorized his speech involuntarily.

He tossed the ultra-ball in the air, smiling at it reached its peak and snapped open to shoot a beam of red. It settled in mid-air while Ash snatched the capture device, sighing in relief when the energy formed into Misdreavus and not Snorlax. He made a note to mark her pokéball with one of his stickers.

Misdreavus floated in mid-air a few inches from Ash's head. The ghost surveyed the human and the six pokémon with a creepy smile. The band of orbs around Misdreavus' neck glowed faintly. He remembered that it was a female.

He winched when he looked into her yellow-and-red eyes, remembering the vision he'd seen when he'd been hit accidentally by her Confuse Ray. The serpentine monster still made him shudder. And ever since that vision, he'd been experiencing voices in his head – hums and muffled words that sounded like a woman's voice.

"Hello, Misdreavus," he greeted warily. He didn't want the ghost to lash out, and he'd told his friends to be on the their best behavior. He smiled when the Misdreavus didn't respond aggressively; instead, she sang (for lack of a better word) in vibrato, much to Ash's amusement.

"My name's Ash. Do you remember me? I caught you yesterday at the Pokémon Tower." At that, she looked amused, and a bit happy. "Anyway, I'm your trainer now. Do you want to join me and my friends? I'm not going to force you to, but I'm not going to lie when I say I'd be really happy if you did join me."

Misdreavus smiled in that same, unnerving manner, then she cried jovially. "Is that a yes?" When she bobbed her head, his face broke out into a grin. "Great!"

Ash spent the next several minutes introducing his friends to Misdreavus. She seemed to mix with every one of them, especially Luna. She leered at Saur affectionately, no doubt remembering their battle, and spooked Zeus by disappearing and then reappearing behind the Flaaffy. When she approached Delphi, the Xatu inched away in the most subtle manner, and Misdreavus smirked in amusement at that.

"There's another one, and it's a Snorlax," he told Misdreavus. The corporeal creature tilted her head. "But it's not here right now. It gets angry pretty easily."

He glanced at her. "Do you want a nickname? The other have one."

Misdreavus trilled in delight and nodded her head. Ash blinked. Most pokémon would take some time to consider whether they wanted a nickname or not, but Misdreavus seemed to be pretty quick at making decisions. So Ash listed off a few names, but she shook her head at all of them.

"You've got to be the pickiest pokémon ever," Ash grumbled. At this rate she was going to be stuck with 'Ghost'. But he noticed that she seemed to lean towards the weirder, odder names.

"How about Screecher?" he said, picking out the most random name from the silliest part of his brain. Surprisingly, she seemed to love it. The Misdreavus performed a backflip in mid-air and squealed harmoniously, all the while grinning.

Ash blinked. "Seriously? Screecher? I mean, it's not the best name, you could have a much better name—" But his newly-captured Misdreavus wouldn't have it, and he sighed. "Okay…Screecher it is."

The newly-christened Screecher trilled happily and then floated a good distance away, performing acrobatics and whatnot. He just sighed at her antics.

After that, they began to eat. He gave each of his pokémon a bowl of pokémon food and mashed berries before he ate his own pack of beef jerky. Even though it wasn't the best food, it was enough for sustenance, and it wasn't like he had much else to eat on the road, anyway.

He watched his pokémon interact with their new member during his lunch, and he was pleased to see that everyone reacted well to Screecher. Saur kept mostly to himself but responded with growls whenever Screecher came close to him. The only one who seemed unnerved was Delphi, but he realized that she being a psychic-type would naturally shy away from ghost- and dark-types.

He was also pleased to see Delphi trying to levitate her food via her psychic powers to increase her focus while using Psychic. Ash watched her levitated several pellets and a berry, but frowned when a single pellet lost the blue outline, broke away from the chain and fell back into the bowl.

Once they were done, Ash and his team packed up the utensils before continuing along the road. Only Chimchar and Screecher opted to remain outside their pokéballs for the time being.

He got into several battles after that, but none wherein he lost, even though he came close to that when he pitted Chimchar against a Pidgeotto.

Evening time came, and then he sent out the rest of his team for their usual training session. He'd already set up camp for the night, and he wanted to make sure that his pokémon got stronger and get a good night's sleep after their workout.

His friends appeared in flashes of light and he smiled at them. "Okay, everybody," he said. "We're making our way to Celadon City now, where we'll be having our fourth gym battle." Many of the cracked grins at that. "She uses grass-type pokémon. So, Delphi, Chimchar, you two are going to be the two major players in the fight."

Chimchar chirped happily, the little monkey pounding his chest. Delphi simply gave a curt nod, so he continued.

"The other one is going to be Hydrus." That got a few weird looks, but Ash was confident in his Golduck. He already knew a couple of psychic-type moves – most grass-types in Kanto had an additional poison-typing to adapt and nullify their weakness – and when he would purchase Ice Beam in Celadon, he would prove to be quite the problem for Erika.

Hydrus looked equally surprised as the rest of his teammates, but stepped forward and quacked eagerly. Ash grinned and nodded at his enthusiasm. "Good, then. Delphi, I want you to help teach Hydrus and Luna to perfect Psychic while you work on it too. Chimchar, you'll be sparring with Zeus – I want you to use Agility and then Electro Ball, okay. See if it gets stronger or not. Saur, I want you to work on Magical Leaf, okay?"

He assigned Delphi, Luna and Hydrus to work on Psychic while Zeus and Chimchar sparred with each other. He watched the Flaaffy blur away with Agility, then pause for a second and fire an overpowered Electro Ball that Chimchar nimbly dodged, the fire-type retaliating with a blanket of red-hot embers. Saur was busy launching a flurry of glowing leaves at his targets.

He kept Screecher with him so that he could assess the Misdreavus properly, and he was pleased to say she was pretty strong. While her Icy Wind wasn't perfect, she was great at the rest of her attacks. Her Shadow Balls were particularly nasty, and he didn't want to be on the receiving end of it.

"That's enough, Screecher," he said, pleased by the way her Icy Wind left a layer of snow and frost on the bark of a tree. "You were great. I can see that you're already pretty powerful."

She tittered happily, and nuzzled against him. He shuddered at the coldness of her ectoplasmic skin, but didn't say anything.

In the end he just told the Misdreavus to practice her moves so that she could execute them quickly and perfectly, without a hitch. Screecher nodded and floated off to another target not that far away from Chimchar and Zeus. She immediately began to collect ectoplasmic energy in front of her mouth, and Ash was pleased to see the force with which it struck the tree and left it shaking.

XxXxX

Ash walked over to Delphi's group. He watched from. A few feet away as she chirped something softly, and her pupils nodded. Luna closed her eyes and her hands, the Clefairy searching for her inner psychokinetic powers. Hydrus' jewel began to glow bright red and he clenched his bill in concentration.

Slowly, a few rocks near Hydrus began to rise in the air, all surrounded by a blue glow and connected by near-invisible strands of energy. He managed to hold them for a good twenty seconds before his arms sagged and they fell to the ground with a thud.

Luna was doing much better, almost as good as Delphi. The Clefairy held her set of rocks in the air for an ever-growing amount of time, although Ash could notice her eyes narrowing every few seconds. In the end, she too gave in and let the rocks drop the ground.

Ash turned to Hydrus. "Luna, that was great." He looked at Hydrus, for whom he'd already made a new training regime. He wanted the Golduck to learn Hydro Pump, one of the most powerful water-type moves. It was basically an overpowered version of Water Gun, with much more volume and a greater water pressure. He'd heard of some pokémon managing to punch through steel.

"Hydrus, keep working on Psychic. After that, we'll begin teaching you Hydro Pump, he said, and he was pleased to see the spark of eagerness and excitement in the Golduck's eyes. Hydrus immediately focused and levitated the rocks again, determined to master Psychic at the earliest so that he could begin working on Hydro Pump.

"Keep up the good work, guys," he said, walking away. Then he stopped as he got an idea. Picking up the heavy rock at his feet, he casually tossed it at the ring of stones being levitated by Delphi and made it land on one of the floating stones. Ash watched as the concentration nearly broke, and all off the rocks began to fall to the ground. The Xatu's eyes widened and her eyes lit blue once again, stopping most of the rocks inches from the ground, but some of them hit the dirt. Ash smirked and began to walk away.

Then he heard a voice in his head – erratic and static, and deeply feminine.

 _W-Why did y-you have to go d-d-d-do th-that?_

Ash froze, and he turned around slowly to look at Delphi, who looked at him with annoyance in her eyes.

Realization him like a bullet train.

"D-Delphi?" he croaked. "D-Did you just…t-talk?!"

XxXxX

In one of the rooms of the Pokémon Volunteer House, Kageyama Fuji sat in his office, deeply troubled. It had been only a day since those two nice boys had saved him and those poor ghosts in the Pokémon Tower. He smiled when he thought of those two, and how he knew Reina had taken a liking to that Ash boy, despite her half-hearted protests.

He looked at his locked cabinet, where he kept his storage of megastones and keystones. He felt a lump in his throat as he thought about them. He'd only given them to Ash and Paul as gifts to lessen his guilt – the guilt that he'd suppressed at the back of his mind for so many years.

But now, when those dastardly Rockets had held him captive, he'd been reminded of his mistakes, and the memories came back to haunt him. How he'd worked to end the Kohto Civil War, only to create so many casualties. How he'd created the monster that he'd first loved and then come to hate. How, when he'd destroyed all his research that gave birth to that abomination, he'd been held at gunpoint by the newly-formed Team Rocket, only for his newly-married daughter to take the bullet from him and die when he'd refused to work for them any longer.

He chuckled bitterly as he held his only daughter's photograph in his old hands. At first when the Rocket Corps (as they'd been named then) had come to him, they'd been the epitome of success. Our name stands for power and speed, they'd said! But it had been the worst decision of his life. He loved Amber so, so much…And that day, he'd felt like he'd lost _everything_.

But he'd been caught off-guard when those bastards talked to him about getting his daughter back. He knew what they meant by that, and it gave him hope. He could have Amber back in his life, Reina could finally have her aunt back…But he couldn't help but recoil when he thought of consorting with Team Rocket…again.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, he made his bitter decision. Wiping his tearstained face, he slumped back in his chair.

He waited for Team Rocket to come and extract him from his home.

XxXxX

 **Trainer : Ash Ketchum**

 **Pokémon in Possession :**

 **Saur** – Ivysaur

 **Delphi** – Xatu

 **Zeus** – Flaaffy

 **Luna** – Clefairy

 **Hydrus** – Golduck

 **Chimchar**

 **Snorlax**

 **Screecher** – Misdreavus

XxXxX

 **I think that's a pretty good place to end it, even though I was leaning to end it after the Delphi-speak thingy. For the most part, I think this was a meh chapter, mostly because I didn't like the first half of it, but was pretty happy with the latter.**

 **As always, thanks for all the reviews and favorites and follows, everyone! I hope you're enjoying this journey as much as I am.**

 **Also, MEGA EVOLUTIOOOON! BOO-YAH!**

 **Mega Evolution won't occur until later in Kanto – or maybe in the next saga, I don't know – but it definitely will be a feature. I couldn't help but take the idea of Fuji giving Red a Charizardite X in Pokémon: Origins, so I just had to put this in.**

 **Next chapter comes up in early Feb, because I'll be having my preliminary exams in Jan, follow by my board exams beginning from the first of March. So Feb seems like a pretty good place for the next update.**

 **Review responses for the previous chapter:**

 **Don't forget to review!**

 **Merry Christmas, everyone!**


	10. The Grass is Always Meaner

**Hey guys! It's great to finally see all of you at _Trainer: Kanto Arc_. I know it's been a long – a very long time, but I am happy and confident to say that, from hereon, I will be having a steady update schedule for the next five months. I will be able to pump of bi-monthly updates, unless something comes up, which will be very unlikely. I will also be having a steady update schedule for the rest of my fanfictions – _The Jump, HPJoL, PMD: RoD_ , and _Conqueror_ , and a new HP story that I am working on, so if anyone that reads the rest of my works is over here, it's safe to say that my other projects will be alive as well.**

 **I am also going to say that, by the next update, this fiction is going to be retitled as only** _Trainer_ **. Simply because I've decided against separating each of Ash's journeys, and that it'll be easier for readers to read this instead of jumping go the sequels. I'll also be splitting up the story in different seasons/arcs, so by now the first chapter should be renamed as 'Season I: The New Friend'. I know it doesn't matter much, but I figured I had a responsibility to ensure that you guys weren't confused by the minor changes.**

 **Also, I made a couple of changes in chapter eight – nothing that greatly affects the plot, so readers, you can rest easy ;) Oh, except that Chimchar's nickname had been revoked. I dunno, but it just wasn't working. (Sorry, Chimchar. If it helps, remember that Ash hasn't nicknamed Snorlax either.)**

 **I'm sure that you guys probably are tired of my blabbering and just want to skip straight to the chapter, and so you shall. Enjoy!**

XxXxX

 _Chapter Ten: The Grass is Always Meaner_

Ash was in shock.

Had Delphi just _Spoken_ to him?

His mouth was hanging so low that it almost touched the ground, and he was as still as a statue.

Neither of them moved.

Delphi eyes narrowed for the first time in ages. She seemed…confused. Not awed in the slightest. As if she was surprised at the fact that he just realized that he heard her speak.

He closed his mouth and gulped. "Delphi…Did you just talk to me in my head?" he asked. He had to confirm whether she'd really conversed with him telepathically or that he was going crazy.

Slowly, she nodded.

Ash drew in a sharp breath. "Holy shit," he said reverently. "This beats everything!"

Delphi frowned. _Wh-Wha— wrong?_ she asked, in the same, fuzzy voice, as if speaking into a walkie-talkie with bad reception.

Ash flinched as he heard her voice in his head. "S-Stop it, please!" he stammered, and the crease on the Xatu's forehead deepened. He was wrestling was words, flabbergasted. It sounded like an echo in his mind, and felt weird the way Delphi's 'voice' mixed with the background sounds. Still, nothing was weirder than the fact that she could talk to him at this stage.

And her voice – it sounded like a young woman's drawl, and had a snide and snarky edge to it, crisp and sharp. Ash shook his head. He still hadn't gotten over the fact that she'd finally spoken.

"How..."

Delphi resisted the urge to roll her eyes. _I have always b-been s-s-speakin—, you have j-just been t-too d-d-dumb to h-hear m-me_ , she said.

Ash barked a laugh despite himself. "Sh-Shut up!" he said, but not angrily.

For the first time in a long time, her eyes smiled at him.

XxXxX

Ash barely slept that night, and spent most of his time in wonderment and awe at the fact that his friend had managed to speak to him telepathically. While he'd been initially shocked, it was amazing that he could now understand what she wanted to say...and possibly help her with what the Xatu had been going through ever since she'd evolved.

But he still couldn't wrap his head around the idea of her telepathy. Only strong psychics, those who could have perfect control over their psionic energy, could talk to trainers in perfect telepathy. While Delphi was undoubtedly strong right now, she just wasn't at the level of the psychic-types he was thinking about. Perhaps he needed a word with Professor Oak about this; the aged scientist excelled at human-pokémon relations, and would be the perfect person to consult.

He woke up pretty late the next morning, and stretched his limbs before rousing his pokémon and then packing up camp. He took a long glance at Delphi, who was watching him eerily, before the boy swung his backpack over his shoulders and motioned for his friends to follow him.

There were far more trainers traveling from Saffron City to Lavender Town and vice versa, so Ash's pokémon received a lot more experience in battling and grew a fair bit stronger than yesterday. He was particularly happy with Luna, who'd been able to use Psychic as both telekinetically and in a wave of energy with fair ease, and also with Screecher, who was an able battler despite her coy appearance.

In fact, the Misdreavus was particularly terrifying. She liked to make her opponents suffer mentally, and sometimes physically – she toyed with them. When Screecher had played enough, she would purposefully take a hit and then retaliate with a Payback that usually finished her opponent.

Ash found a spike of perverse glee when his challengers blanched at Screecher's brutal tactics and then scurry off when the battle was over.

When they'd settled for lunch, Ash had tried to contact his sponsor, but to no avail. It seemed that Oak had something to attend to, so Ash decided to try to ring him up once again later in the evening.

That day's training session was harsher than the previous days, mainly to make up for lost time since Ash had called it quits after Delphi had spoken to him. After healing him pokémon, having some refreshments and setting camp for the night, Ash called his team together and told them their training regimes for the night.

Currently he was overseeing a three-way practice battle between Zeus, Hydrus and Luna. The main point was to help Zeus slip into Agility as easily and quickly as possible, but it wouldn't hurt for Luna and Hydrus to get some extra training.

"That's it, Zeus, keep trying to access Agility to dodge those Water Guns!" Ash hollered supportively at the Flaaffy, who grunted and began to blur faster across the given area. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Delphi trying to lift a boulder in the air. "Luna, Hydrus, keep firing! Don't let him get away!"

He winced as Zeus purposefully took a Scald to the chest, only so that the Flaaffy could shock Hydrus with a Thunderbolt via the stream of boiling water. Hydrus quacked indignantly and snapped his beak shut, Zeus grinning triumphantly, but a surprise Wake-Up Slap from Luna sent him flying.

Ash was so into the battle that he almost missed the vibrating pokégear on him. With a sigh, he turned to see who was calling him, only to smile when he saw the name that popped up on the screen. It read: Samuel Oak.

He pressed the answer button and saw the screen lit up with Professor Oak's image. The old man blinked before his face broke into a true smile.

"Ash, m'boy!" greeted Oak. "How are you?"

Ash grinned. "I'm fine, Professor."

"So, what exciting adventures have you been up to lately?"

 _More than I can tell you,_ he thought dryly. "Actually, Professor, it's kind of important..."

Oak sobered up. "What happened, Ash?"

"Professor...You remember Delphi – my Xatu – right?" He heard a hum of assent, so he continued. "Well...she spoke to me yesterday."

There was silence, and Oak looked shocked. "Pardon?"

"Well, we were training yesterday, and all of a sudden I heard her voice in my head," Ash elaborated. "I thought I was going crazy, but she actually confirmed that she spoke to me."

"Was this Xatu traded to you?" Oak asked.

Ash shook his head. "No. I caught her on route one, and she evolved somewhere between Saffron and Vermillion," he said. "But she's as strong as Saur – my Ivysaur, I mean. Is that normal, that she spoke?"

Oak scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Not as far as I am aware. It actually takes a far longer time for psychic-types such as Xatu, Claydol, Exeggutor, etcetera to converse telepathically as they aren't pure psychics. You'll find pokémon such as Alakazam being able to talk at an earlier stage – it isn't that rare for even an Abra to do that."

Ash shifted nervously. "Well...I was also wondering whether I was a psychic," he mumbled, bracing himself for when Oak would laugh.

Surprisingly, he didn't. "It is...a possibility," Oak conceded. "But I won't be able to tell for sure unless you come back to Pallet and let me run some tests on you." He chuckled. There was a long silence before Oak spoke up once again.

"Ash, you do know who Sabrina is, right?"

Ash snorted. "Of course I do, Professor. But what does that have to do with this situation?"

Oak shrugged. "I was thinking of setting up an appointment for you with her so that she could investigate this phenomenon. As a powerful psychic, she and her pokémon will be in a much better position to explain everything to you, and perhaps help you strengthen the connection. Would that be okay?"

Ash grinned. "That would help a lot, Professor! Thanks for everything!" he exclaimed.

Oak smiled. "Think nothing of it. I'm just doing a favour for you. Imagine – Ash Ketchum, Pallet Town Psychic!"

The two of them burst into laughter, although Ash couldn't help but smirk a little at that title. He'd love to be a psychic like Sabrina and leave Gary slack-jawed when the time came. "How is everything else going on?" Oak said, changing the subject.

Ash and Oak talked for a long time, during which Luna had finally managed to knock Zeus out with a Pound attack (Hydrus had already been knocked out by three consecutive Thunderbolts).

"I'll send you a message of your appointment, Ash," Oak said once they'd finished their conversation. "From your current location, I suppose a few more days will be all that it would take for you to reach Saffron."

Ash nodded. "Thanks, Professor."

"Don't mention it. Stay safe, m'boy."

Ash bid him goodbye and then Oak ended the call with a click. Sighing, he put his pokégear away. At least he could tick one thing off of his list.

"Okay Luna, that's it!" Ash yelled as he walked up to the practice battle, the Clefairy continuing to pummel an unconscious Zeus after the Flaaffy had pretended to be knocked out the first time and fired a quick Thunderbolt. "We don't want him dead."

The rest of his pokémon converged on him as Ash popped open a revive capsule and poured it down his Flaaffy's throat. It took around fifteen seconds before Zeus was brought back to consciousness, and then Ash applied a few potions on bruises and a Burn Heal over a burnt area that had been caused by Hydrus' Scald. Once Zeus was alright, the boy moved onto Hydrus and performed similar actions.

"You three can take a break. You've done enough, and you earn a good rest," Ash said, smiling at Zeus, Luna and Hydrus. They nodded and walked off to the campsite while Ash looked at the rest of his team. Delphi could use Psychic with ease, and he smiled at the way she flew into the air and then released a burst of psychic energy that made a boulder crumble. Saur was performing continuous Take Downs on a tree, and his resistance to recoil damage was improving from the way he was shrugging off the collisions. Also, it made nicely for him to master Double Edge faster.

Ash was making Chimchar practice Flamethrower so that he could perfect the attack quickly. He did this by ordering the Chimchar to breathe fire on a stone and hold a steady stream for as long as he could. In the beginning, Chimchar's attempts at Flamethrower were pathetic – they were little more that fireballs spat consecutively and quickly, like a machine gun, so that it would look like it was a steady stream. Now, Flamethrower looked half-mastered, and Chimchar could hold the unsteady stream of fire for a little over five seconds.

Screecher was doing extremely well, and was probably one of the most powerful member on the team. She rivalled Saur in terms of brute strength, Delphi in terms of speed and her special techniques were a fair bit more powerful than Zeus' or Hydrus'. The Misdreavus didn't rely on brute strength a lot, and her only means to attack in that manner were via Payback, which was probably her most powerful attack when she took a hit.

Ash was having her practice Icy Wind at the moment, since that particular attack wasn't strong enough. He was thinking of having Hydrus help her learn the ice technique after he would teach the Golduck Ice Beam.

He sat down under the tree near which they'd set camp and pulled out his pokédex. Hydrus, Luna and Zeus had formed a circle and were tearing into the food eagerly. He knew that his pokémon were especially hungry after a good spar/workout and barely bothered at the somewhat bland taste of pokémon food. Still, for good measure, Ash had added in a good amount of berries so that they wouldn't get irritated with him.

Switching his pokédex on, he accessed the trainer database. He wanted a good idea of the pokémon he and his team would face at the Celadon City gym. He was mostly excited at meeting Erika Verdant, the gym leader of Celadon.

He cracked a grin as he thought about the grass-type trainer. Personally, he knew her quite well – she'd been one of the trainers who'd received a starter pokémon from Professor Oak a few years ago. He – and Gary, who had been in the lab at that time helping the aides with the work – had seen her practically fly into her lab an hour earlier than the given time just so that she could have a Bulbasaur as her starter. She wouldn't have needed to do that, because her father, the previous gym leader, had already reserved the grass-type starter pokémon for her, but Erika had been paranoid that someone had beat her to it. Anyway, she'd grown fond of Gary and him whenever she'd visited Professor Oak for tips or whatnot. He knew her as well as Daisy Oak, Ash thought to himself.

The last time he'd seen her was a two years ago, when she came to announce that she'd taken over the Celadon City gym from her grandmother. It was a happy time, mostly because Erika had forced Gary and Ash with sweets until they looked fit to burst. He wondered if she still remembered him, now that he thought about it.

Which was why he was so confident for his upcoming gym battle with Erika – he knew her battle style fairly well and he could rattle off her League registered team of six with his eyes closed: Venusaur, Exeggutor, Vileplume, Meganium, Tangrowth and Victreebel. Those six were the strongest on her team, and he'd been in awe when he'd seen her battle Lt Surge in an exhibition match. Even though she had lost in the end, Erika had fought like a warrior.

He found the gym leader's profile in a matter of seconds, and clicked on the tab that would show her pokémon that she used for trainers with three badges. Bayleef, Gloom, Weepinbell and its line's tertiary stage, Tangela, Parasect, Jumpluff, Sunflora, Lombre, Nuzleaf, and a few he did not recognize, like Pansage and Gogoat. The last two were said to be from Unova and Kalos respectively, but he was sure he could handle the others with ease – it was a three-on-three battle anyway. He was sure of his team and himself.

He looked up to see his Misdreavus hold the Icy Wind for twenty whole seconds, now. Turning his pokédex off, he went to give Screecher some pointers that would help the ghost in the long run.

XxXxX

It took two more days for him to reach the outskirts of Saffron City. He knew this by his surroundings – there was far less foliage, a small amount of trees, all of this due to the industrial smoke and pollution that seemed to come mostly from Saffron. Ash didn't see any grass-type pokémon as he walked through the barren area. It was to be expected, what with the urbanisation and industrialisation.

After a couple more minutes, ash noticed the gates to the massive form of Saffron City. He could get there quickly and have a nice, long stay in the Poké—

"Hey!" a voice said. "I challenge you to a battle!"

Ash blinked. Looking ahead, he saw a kid a year or two younger to him not far away, wearing blue shorts and a yellow t-shirt. The kid's blue hat was turned backwards, and auburn hair flowed out from under the cap.

"Huh?" Ash mumbled, even though he'd heard what the kid had said.

He rolled his eyes. "Are ya deaf? I challenge you, to a _pokémon battle_!"

"Okay, okay, fine." Ash sighed and the boy grinned wider as he walked towards Ash. A battle wouldn't hurt when he was right at the edge of Saffron City. Judging from this kid's age, he could beat him pretty quickly. "How many pokémon?"

"Two," he replied. Ash noticed him having five pokéballs on his belt.

"Whatever, let's get this over with." Ash enlarged his first pokéball and tapped the release button, sending Screecher forward. The Misdreavus cried out melodiously and smirked when she realised that she was in battle.

His opponent quirked an eyebrow and grinned. "A ghost, huh? That's pretty impressive!" The boy enlarged his own pokéball and wound his arm back. "But it's no match for me! Wingsley, I choose you!"

The sphere burst open and out came a Xatu. Ash's eyes widened at that, but didn't find it particularly surprising. There were loads of the same species of pokémon in the world, waiting to be caught. He also noticed that the Xatu his challenger had wasn't as big as Delphi.

"Let's begin," the kid said. "Wingsley, use Night Shade!"

Twin black beams of energy pulsed out of Wingsley's eyes, shooting straight for Screecher. "Intercept with Shadow Ball," Ash ordered. "Then use Icy Wind."

The beams struck the shadowy orb and an explosion was triggered, restricting both pokémon's vision. Then a gale of cold rushed forth from Screecher's mouth, the Misdreavus' eyes narrowed in concentration as the Ice-laced wind blue the dust and smoke away in the Xatu's direction.

Wingsley shrieked as it was struck by the Icy Wind, frost forming on its feathers. Its trainer bit his lower lip, then called forth another order. "Steel Wing!"

"Confuse Ray!"

"Don't look!"

A flash of red light shot forth once Wingsley launched itself into the air, and the Xatu closed its eyes in a way to reduce the confusion inflicted. The alien energy distorted its mind, making Wingsley veer off course and miss Screecher by a mile, crashing into a ground with a thud.

"Curse," Ash said, and the Misdreavus smirked. An aura of pale red energy engulfed her, and Screecher writhed in agony for a second or two. Ash hated seeing his pokémon get hurt, and held back a smile as the aura blitzed towards Wingsley and engulfed the rising Xatu like Jack eating a Twinkie.

Curse would now work like a slow-acting poison, sapping its energy and bringing it closer and closer to defeat every few seconds. Curse was Screecher's favourite move, after Confuse Ray, because it allowed her to perform her horrific acts by lengthening the slow, exquisite torture Curse would cause.

Wingsley was now confused _and_ Cursed, and its trainer looked close to pissing himself. Ash wanted to end this quickly, but Screecher increased the time by launching weak Shadow Balls, half of which she would miss purposely.

"You sadist!" Ash heard the kid say. "Wingsley, please! Use Aerial Ace!"

"Let it hit you," Ash told Screecher softly. "Then use Payback."

Arcs of energy trailed out from Wingsley's beak, making it look like as if the Xatu had been caged in streams of white light. Screecher braced herself from the Aerial Ace and grunted as Wingsley slammed into her, but before the Xatu could get away the Misdreavus executed Payback. She was enveloped in a purplish-black aura, and a second later Screecher barrelled into Wingsley with brute force that was unnatural for such a creature. An unconscious Xatu was sent hurtling back to its trainer, who recalled Wingsley in a beam of red energy before replacing the pokéball.

"That was a cheap shot," the boy mumbled.

Ash shrugged. "That's what you get for battling me," he said.

"You'll pay for hurting Wingsley!" he yelled indignantly. "Dante, kick ass!"

A fairly big Eevee sprouted out of the greatball its trainer had been holding. Ash almost aww'd as the brown canine circled a small area and nuzzled its trainers leg. Then the boy told the Eevee that it was in battle, and the fox stretched and widened its mouth into a snarl.

"Dante, use—"

"Wait." Ash held up his hand, and his opponent stopped abruptly, frowning. "You did well, Screecher. Take a rest for the time being," he said, recalling the proud ghost. The kid with the Eevee looked confused as Ash switched Screecher's pokéball with the one he'd first received when he'd started his journey a little over three months ago. "Saur, you're up!"

The Ivysaur materialized on the ground and grunted, smirking as he took in the sight of his smaller opponent. Ash did likewise. While he would have no problem using Screecher to win the battle, he wanted to try out a brainwave he'd suddenly been struck by last night.

The kid shrugged. "Whatever. I'll beat you regardless. Swift, Dante!"

"Destroy them with Power Whip!" said Ash.

Dante twisted, star-shaped rays of energy shooting from her body and racing towards Saur. The grass-type unleashed two, thick glowing vines, pulverizing most of the rays of energy into oblivion – but one smashed into his face, catching him off-guard. As the Ivysaur flinched, his opponent's Eevee lunged forth with fangs that glowed black before sinking the dark-type energy tainted teeth into Saur's flesh. There was a small trickle of blood, but Saur choked Dante with his vines, forcing the Eevee to let go in order to catch its breath. "Toss it into the air!"

Dante went flying, reaching its peak in a matter of seconds before it began to plummet downwards. "Charge it and use Take Down!" said Ash.

The kid started screaming frantically, but his attempts were in vain. Saur tracked his falling target perfectly. When it was just a few seconds from hitting the ground, Saur rushed forward, body gleaming white with energy before he slammed into Dante the second before the Eevee was about to hit the ground. The canine whimpered as it was knocked away by the hit, speeding in its trainer's direction before hitting the barren ground and skidding to a halt. Ash's challenger hollered for it to get up, and a few seconds later it did so, but weakly.

Ash decided to execute the crazy idea that had been in his mind since last night. "Saur, form an Energy Ball, then eat it!"

He knew it was a risk, because he and his starter hadn't even practiced it in the first place. But he had to try.

"Rawr?" Saur questioned, looking back at his trainer like he was crazy. Ash looked at him, like, _just do it_ , and Saur shrugged, giving into his trainer's craziness before forming the green sphere of energy in his open maw. With a frown of concentration, he forced his jaws shut on the stationary sphere, swallowing it whole.

There was a sickening silence that lasted a second before a rush of energy swarmed Saur. A bright green aura invigorated the Ivysaur, strength and newfound power coursing through his veins. Huh. Maybe his trainer wasn't so stupid, after all.

"Wh-What're you playing at?!" the kid yelled, obviously stunned and taken aback.

"End this," Ash said. "Power Whip!"

There was a desperate need to _release_ this sudden energy. Saur grimaced, before a thick vine, that looked like it was made of green energy, rushed forth and scored a clean hit on Dante's flank. The Eevee howled in pain, falling onto its left side while Saur prepared for another attack.

The rest of the match got over pretty easily – Saur hammered Eevee with a few more vines before the kit's feet gave way and it fell to the ground. Its trainer glared at Ash as he returned his thoroughly injured pokémon, walking over to give Ash the winning money before he raced away.

Ash smirked, bent low and petted his monster. "Good job, Saur. Now let's get you healed up."

XxXxX

It only took a few minutes to pass the gates of Saffron City, and then all he needed to do was take a cab to the Pokécenter, which was in the middle of the city, a few blocks away from the Silph Company building. Once Ash got his team to Nurse Joy, he was torn between what he wanted to do next. Professor Oak had messaged him the timing of his meeting with Sabrina on his pokégear, and it was much later in the day. He also didn't want to go without his pokémon, because he needed Delphi with him.

In the end he decided to relax for some time and explore the city. He also kept his Snorlax in the PC's storage system, because he didn't want an extra pokéball with him and he wasn't going to release the brute until his pokémon were strong enough to match it, anyway. He was pretty sure his friends were close to its strength, and that they would be able to be more than a match for the gluttonous beast once they'd reach Celadon City.

A nice, warm shower and a hot meal later, Ash decided to explore the city, telling Nurse Joy to keep a hold on his team until he would come back. He just took Chimchar with him for protection – while the Chimchar was probably the weakest on his team, he didn't want to get mugged while roaming a huge place such as Saffron.

 _Saffron is big_ , Ash thought to himself as he raised his head, watching the skyscrapers touch the skies. He'd passed by the Silph Co building, which had tours on a weekly basis, but unfortunately today wasn't one of those days. Still, it was fascinating to see people bustle in and out of the magnificent glass doors, which gave him a veritable view of the lobby whenever they slid open to admit someone or let someone leave.

He then decided to waste some time by watching a movie at one of the cinemas. The film was titled _Confessions of a Pokéholic_ , which was about a pokémon collector struggle to give up his habit of catching every pokémon he saw while he searched for his true love. It was boringly stupid, and Ash was questioning his sanity within fifteen minutes of the movie beginning. But he'd paid for the ticket, and he didn't know what else to do in the city, so he ended up which of the actors were the worst and if he would be able to defeat 'Mr Kimaszewski' in a pokémon battle.

Once the movie was done, Ash decided to have a snack of sorts, which was the best decision he'd made in ages. The pizza that _Juno's_ served was absolutely brilliant and he found himself having thirds. By the time Ash was done, the owner was basically in love with him for bringing so much business and he wouldn't be surprised if she'd popped the question.

He wanted to explore some more, but found the time drawing nearer and nearer to his appointment, so he took the nearest cab to the Pokécenter, grabbed his pokémon and took the same cab to the Saffron gym. The driver must've thought that he was a challenger, because he wished Ash good luck with a pitiful expression before driving off to pick up other clients.

 _Whatever_. He tugged the hem of his jacket. _We'll see who wins when I challenge Sabrina_. With a sigh, he walked into the large structure that was the Saffron City gym.

XxXxX

The interior of the gym was sleek and futuristic, yet mystical and cold. If anything, Ash felt like an alien here. The furniture was designed amazingly. There were benches attached to the wall with no legs, and had, smooth, flat leather cushions. The walls were devoid of any decorations, and were painted a pale lavender shade.

There was a receptionist at the front desk, wearing a form-fitting purple-and-white jumpsuit. Her face was beautiful, but robotic and cold. There was no smile, no expression on that heart-shaped face...heck, there weren't even any crinkles that indicated that she'd ever smiled in her life. Feeling unnerved, Ash walked forward.

"Hello," Ash said. The receptionist's head tilted upwards, and he continued. "My name's Ash Ketchum. I have an appointment with Leader Sabrina at seven thirty..."

Her eyes – only her eyes – moved downwards to glance at the pad in the desk. Ash found his name faster than she did, and he bit back a sigh when she finally spoke up. "Yes. Ms Sabrina will see you now. Please head towards room B36," she said in a monotone.

"Um...Okay." Truth be told, Ash wouldn't want to be here in the slightest if it wasn't for his little problem. He knew that psychics were mostly introverts and didn't like human contact, but he didn't think it would be that bad. He figured that he'd be the only exception if he turned out to be a psychic.

Next to the receptionist's desk was a long corridor, through which Ash began to walk. On either side of him, numerous wooden doors to small rooms lined the walls, each with a label on top that stated the room number. On his left were all the A rooms, while on his right were all the Bs.

Some of the inhabitants had kept their doors open, allowing Ash brief glances as he continued to walk along. One psychic was staring deeply in the eyes of his Kadabra, while another was levitating – _levitating_ , for God's sake – cross-legged with a Meditite and a weird psychic-type on either side. While he recognized the Meditite, he didn't recognize the other. It was small, foetus-like creature with a triangular, pink orifice. Its stubby arms were connected to elliptical spheres that elongated to form a segmented arm, and its entire body was covered in an extremely thick and tough layer of pale-green plasma.

The foetus-baby looked at him with black, beady eyes, and its mouth stretched slightly into a smile. Then the levitating psychic opened her eyes and looked at him with emotionless eyes, and that was enough to creep him out and make him walk a bit faster.

He was walking for a long time before he reached his desired destination. The figures B36 were carved into a plate of gold. Ash cleared his throat and braced himself for the upcoming conversation, before knocking on the door.

When he received no response, he twisted the cold, metal doorknob, and he was surprised to find it unlocked. Without a second thought, he swung the door open, only to find it empty save for a lone Alakazam in the middle of the room.

The Alakazam stared at him with brown eyes for a moment before they flashed blue. A split-second later, he heard a soft, almost silent, pop behind him, and when he turned around Ash nearly had a heart attack.

Standing – or rather, floating – there was a woman directly in front of him. She peered at Ash with glowing, grey eyes and her black hair, which reached just above her waist, flowed due to non-existent wind. She was wearing clothes that differed from the rest of the psychics in the room.

"Ash Ketchum," she said warmly, making him flinch in surprise. "It is nice to see you, especially after a tiresome amount of days spent traversing from Lavender to here. It has been exactly three months, six days as of today, no?"

Ash gaped at her, but she wasn't finished. The renowned psychic smiled. "My, my...An Ivysaur with Chlorophyll, that is very rare...Erika would gladly kill for that...And it seems that your adventures on the St Anne were particularly terrifying, what with the brutes Proton and Archer coming after you, Gary Oak and the Lieutenant for simply the pokémon energy amplifier. But there has been a silver lining, due to your Psyduck evolving to save you from the dangerous waters."

Ash was stunned. "How..."

"My psychic powers help me skim through the past, present and future...and my Bond with my Gardevoir only strengthens this ability. But..." She frowned. "I cannot See you very well now, ever since you reached Lavender Town. You have been stained. I can see the dark residue around you, and it is particularly disturbing that you have seen Distortion itself in your vision."

Ash furrowed his brow. "Distortion?" he asked.

She nodded. "Giratina, one of the gods of dimensions. It has completely control over the Reverse World, or the Distortion World, as it is now known. It is...terrifying." She shuddered. "Your Misdreavus, however unintentionally, has caused this."

There was another pop, and Sabrina imploded. Ash backed away in fear, only to bump into the psychic standing behind him. "Do not be afraid. I can only teleport short distances without the help of my friends."

She murmured for him to enter her cabin, and watched numbly as she floated over to her Alakazam's side and waved a hand. Two chairs were dragged psychically from the desk, and settled directly opposite each other. Sabrina sat on the one next to her Alakazam, and Ash took the only remaining seat.

"What is it that you wanted to talk about, Ash?"

Ash gulped. Sabrina was nice and all, but she weirded him out in a different way. They way she moved, talked, and especially those stormy grey eyes that ruined her beautiful, chiselled face. She must've been reading his thoughts, because she smiled and laughed.

"Do not focus on my physical appearance, Ash," she said, making him blush in embarrassment. "It is what is within us that matters more."

"I'd like it if you didn't read my mind, please," he mumbled into his shirt, feeling violated.

Sabrina nodded. "Very well, Ash Ketchum. I will respect your privacy like many others, but I will not be able to prevent myself from doing so if you are feeling a particularly strong emotion. Understand?"

He nodded.

"I ask again: what is so important that Samuel Oak had to personally make an appointment for a boy such as yourself?"

Ash sighed. "It goes like this..."

It took several minutes for him to explain everything, right from when he'd been attacked by Screecher up to the point where he finally heard Delphi speak to him and Sabrina listened to him without a twitch. When he was done, she exchanged a glance with her Alakazam, who hummed.

"Would you mind sending your Misdreavus out, please?" she asked. Ash nodded, and complied. Screecher appeared with a bright smile, but grew serious when she saw the Alakazam. Ash understood that she thought she was in battle as she rushed at Alakazam with a Shadow Ball, but the psychic fox seemed more amused than anything. It simply conjured a barrier of emerald energy and watched with twinkling eyes as Screecher struggled to break through the Protect.

"Stop, Screecher! It's not a battle!" he told her, and the Misdreavus immediately stopped, rounding on him in confusion. "Sabrina just needs you to be out for some time, okay?"

"I will need to perform a few quick tests. Will that be alright?" asked Sabrina. Ash shrugged.

Sabrina closed her eyes, then they fluttered open, her eyes looking like as if they were made by blue electricity. Ash felt some mental prodding and poking, and although they were just a bit uncomfortable, a few of them made him recount his vision back in the Pokémon Tower.

Finally they stopped, and Sabrina told him that he could put Screecher back in her pokéball. He did so and awaited her response. "So, what's wrong?"

Sabrina looked at Alakazam for a few seconds before turning back to Ash. "Alakazam agrees with me. The fragments of dark residue surrounding you have the same signature as your Misdreavus'," said the psychic. "It seems that she has...triggered something within you.

"It was your Xatu you could speak with, yes?" she asked. Ash nodded, then let Delphi out without a word. The Xatu cawed softly, before staring at Ash in slight befuddlement.

 _What's going on?_ she asked. Her voice sounded much clearer now, and the fading echoes had vanished. Ash gasped and pointed a shaking finger at her.

"Did you hear it?!" he exclaimed. "She did it again! I'm not bluffing!"

Sabrina smiled in amusement. "I can tell. The Bond between the two of you has been strengthened in the presence of psychic energy being concentrated in this area. Previously her voice must've sounded broken, yes?"

"Uh-huh."

"Your Xatu is feeding off the residual psychic energy in the air. Once you leave this place, however, you will not be able to communicate properly with her. Attempts to do so will drain...Delphi, as you call her."

Ash nodded slowly. He looked at Delphi and smiled slightly. "You're weird, you know?"

 _Yes, thank you_ , Delphi murmured in a clipped voice, sounding annoyed. Ash laughed.

"I just...didn't expect you to speak so early."

 _Yes, well, I'm not like a human._

Ash looked at Sabrina. "Well? Am I a psychic, or what?"

Sabrina shook her head gravely. "I'm sorry, Ash Ketchum. But you do not appear to have the Gift."

He'd been prepared for this really, so the fact that he wasn't a psychic shouldn't have come as a blow to him. Still, it hurt a bit, but he managed to rein in his disappointment. He nodded, but he still had something else lingering in his mind. "But if I'm not a psychic, how is Delphi able to speak to me?"

"Like I said before, you had been exposed to ghost-type energy," she began to explain. "Each individual – let it be either human or pokémon – has a certain amount of inner psychic potential within themselves, which is why you can sometimes find non-psychic-types able to use psychic-type moves, like your Golduck. People with inverse psionic potential are known as darks – but we're getting off topic. Your exposure to said ghost-type energy must've made your dormant potential to surface...which is why your Xatu was able to connect with you via this at such an early stage."

"So that's it?" Ash said. "I'm not a psychic? And I'll be able to hear Delphi in my head from now on?"

"Not as clearly as this moment," Sabrina assured. "You will be able to hear her fragmented voice, but as her strength increases on she will be able speak to you perfectly."

Ash nodded slowly. If what Sabrina was saying was true, then he needed Delphi to get as strong as she could as quickly as possible, so that he could communicate with her with ease. While he certainly wouldn't train her like people like Damien, he decided to put up a harsher training regime for her.

"I have also learned through your memories and hers that you have been having a few...problems with your Xatu," said Sabrina, and Ash nodded, gulping. He'd completely forgotten about that, and it was a good thing that Sabrina had brought it up. "It is natural for newly-evolved Xatu to behave this way, as they receive...premonitions and glimpses of the future, something that they do not have control of. The reason why Delphi has begun acting so odd is because she has seen terrible visions of the future – particularly yours."

Ash gulped. His curiosity was spiked. "Can...can you tell me what they're about?"

"I'm sorry." And she looked genuine, too. "But this is for your own good. Some of those things are horrible." Sabrina shuddered. "It is best that you do not know of your future, Ash Ketchum. Dark times are ahead of us – and you will play a central role in most of those events. This cannot be avoided."

What? "So what, I'm some prophesised hero or something?" he said angrily. "I mean, it's about me! I'm just a kid, and I want to know. What if I die, or something—"

At that, Delphi flinched. If he'd been only a little more engrossed in his emotions, he would've completely missed it.

He looked at his Xatu, who shifted nervously, a lump forming in his throat. "I'm going to die, aren't I?" Panic filled his body. "That's what you saw! Holy shit!"

"The future can change, Ash Ketchum," Sabrina said sternly. "What we psychics See are just a few possibilities from an infinite number. Our actions determine our destiny. Our path is never truly set."

Ash clenched his fists. Now he knew why Delphi had been acting so oddly. "I don't even wanna know how I die," he muttered through gritted teeth, high on his emotions. He looked at Delphi again. "You knew the St Anne was going to blow up, right? That's why you didn't like it there. And the thing with the Snorlax – you knew it was going to attack us, which was why you grumbled about where we set camp! Those were the times you knew I was going to— die." Death wasn't something he wanted to talk about, especially as of late. Not after the horrors he'd encountered on the St Anne. " _You knew_!" he yelled accusingly.

Ash stood up and fisted his hair. "This beats everything! I can't believe it – I'm going to die!" he bawled, tears burning his eyes. Adrenaline rushed through his body. He felt like he was made of panic, and fear, and anger, and sorrow. _I'm a ten year old kid, for God's sake! I—_

"Stop." And Ash did. He didn't know how, but suddenly he was locked in place, and Sabrina stood, her body brimming with power. "You must not let this get to you, Ash Ketchum. This knowledge can either make or break you. And I cannot take the possibility of you crumbling under the strain. I'm sorry for this."

His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he slipped into a blanket of white.

XxXxX

Ash's eyelids fluttered open and he bolted up groggily. What the heck had just happened...?

"Ah, you're awake." He turned his head to see Sabrina smiling warmly at him. Behind her, Delphi was watching him warily.

Ash frowned. What was he doing with—? Oh, right. He'd come here as Professor Oak had told him to. The last thing he remembered was Sabrina telling him about Delphi's telepathy, but that felt like ages ago...

"What happened?" he asked. He felt like his brain had shut down for five seconds, before coming back up online.

"Alakazam and I just needed to perform a few more tests to see if your Gift was dormant, but it seems that we were wrong."

He frowned. "So, I'm really not a psychic?"

Sabrina shook her head.

Ash's shoulders sagged. "Oh. Well, that's too bad."

"If that's all, you're free to leave," she told him.

Ash nodded. He stood up from the chair and smiled at Delphi, who grimaced, before recalling her. Hmm. He felt like he had one more thing to ask, but he'd forgotten about it, although it might've just been his imagination.

As he reached for the door, he looked back and cast one more smile at Sabrina. "Thanks a lot, Leader Sabrina." Then he walked out of the door.

Once the door slammed shut, Sabrina breathed a sigh of relief. But she couldn't purge the knot of guilt in her stomach for erasing Ash's recent memories. "I feel bad for doing that," she mumbled, looking sadly at her Alakazam.

 _So do I, Sabrina_ , Alakazam replied gravely.

XxXxX

Ash left Saffron City the next morning, wanting to reach his next destination as quickly as possible. Saffron was much closer to Celadon than it was to Lavender, so it would only take around three days for him to reach said city.

He decided to prep his team up – especially Delphi, Chimchar and Hydrus – for the upcoming gym battle. Ash made Chimchar keep learning Flamethrower, while making Hydrus learn Psychic from Luna, which would be an invaluable move against Erika's grass-types, most of which had a secondary poison type.

He now knew what to do to with Delphi's ability to speak. Sabrina had told him to make her practice psychic-type moves, and Ash was going to do just that. So he made her participate in a fairly tough training battle for the next three days.

Speaking of Delphi, he was surprised to see the Xatu begin to spend more and more time with Luna, who seemed equally surprised by this move. It wasn't like they hadn't been close, but this degree of closeness was odd even for her. If Delphi wasn't spending time with Luna, she would either stare for long times at the Clefairy until Ash would pull her out of her thoughts.

Ash didn't know what to do with this new development, but decided to let it go on. As long as his team grew into a family, he minded nothing.

Today's training battle would be Delphi versus Screecher, Saur and Zeus. To make it a bit easier, Zeus was prohibited from using Thunderbolt, which was the Flaaffy's favourite move. When Ash had told him that, Zeus actually looked scandalised. His favourite method of battling was to fry his pokémon to death with his electric moves.

The point of this battle was to make Delphi have a greater control over her psychic prowess, and so she could only use psychic-type moves offensively. To top it up, Ash held a ballpoint pen with him, and the Xatu was required to teleport only when he would click the end of the ballpoint.

When he'd explained it to his four pokémon, Delphi looked disgruntled and slightly annoyed. Ash heard muffled murmurs in his head that went along the lines of 'insolent' and 'crazy', but he didn't care. This was all for making Delphi stronger.

It would so help Saur hit airborne targets, because the Ivysaur had a weakness to flying-types. It would also help him and the others work with each other in tandem if they were caught in double/triple battle at any point in time.

Ash backed a safe distance away, then clapped his hand twice. "Okay, have at it!"

The three of them let out eager cries and began their assault in the flying Xatu. Ash watched as Screecher fired an Icy Wind, Saur an Energy Ball, and Zeus generated a quick Electro Ball between his palms before launching it at Delphi. Sadly, Delphi managed to evade all of them with contemptuous ease. The worst part was that Zeus' aim wasn't even correct and he managed to blast an annoyed Hydrus in the back, who resurfaced angrily before Ash calmed him down and gave him a super potion.

Delphi began to generate a Shadow Ball, but Ash shook his head, and the Xatu ended her attempts before conjuring a dozen clones in mid-air. Saur and Screecher lost the real Delphi within seconds and Zeus took a little longer, but the Flaaffy retaliated by using his own Double Team.

The real Delphi then spread out her wings in the air, releasing a wave of psionic energy that obliterated most of Zeus' clones and slammed into Saur, who was knocked away and onto his back. But the Ivysaur quickly rolled onto his feet and unleashed a barrage of vines.

Delphi swerved and arced gracefully to avoid the appendages, slashing them with her wings and severing the ends. A few, however, wrapped around her talons and jerked her downwards, the Xatu emitting a shriek of surprise.

Saur held her in perfect place, allowing Zeus to clip her on the wings with an Electro Ball. Delphi dropped down, but teleported back into the sky before stretching her cramped muscles and soaring one again.

Ash clicked the ballpoint pen. He didn't know if she could hear it, but she must've before she suddenly teleported behind Saur and took hold of him with Psychic. A blue glow surrounded the saurian, who grimaced in pain by the psychic hold, before he was psychically thrown right into a rushing Zeus.

The two of them tumbled across the ground and Delphi looked triumphant, but she shrieked as a Shadow Ball impacted her back. Screecher grinned, then the Misdreavus fired an Icy Wind that sent freezing shocks of pain through the Xatu's body. Ash clicked the ballpoint pen again, then again, and again, making her caw angrily as he kept clicking it.

Ash watched as Saur tossed Zeus into the air, the Flaaffy glowing golden with electricity as he used Wild Charge. Delphi had been busy avoiding Screecher, and she didn't see Zeus shooting straight for her until he slammed into her torso, shocking her with the Wild Charge attack. Ash winced. That had got to hurt.

XxXxX

By the time Ash reached Celadon, he and his team were well and truly prepared for Erika. Delphi was able to teleport a number of times fluidly, Hydrus had finally mastered Psychic, and Chimchar's core of fire was burning an intense white. He knew that Chimchar was close to evolution. Chimchar was also growing taller, and the swirling tuft of fur on his head was growing straighter.

Ash deposited his pokémon at the Pokécenter before booking a room for few days. Ash had to pay a certain amount because he'd booked a suite, and he wanted to splurge a little. After all, what else was the money he'd won on the St Anne for?

He spent some time in the lobby chatting with some far more experienced trainers. Ash had told them that he'd just started three months ago, so they had some fun talking about their teams. Ash's eyes nearly bugged out of his head when he saw one of the female trainers release a Pupitar from its greatball.

Ash decided to go to Celadon gym and put his name down as a challenger at the earliest. He wanted to defeat Erika and get the Rainbow Badge and then make his way to Fuchsia as quickly as possible.

XxXxX

An hour later, Ash arrived at the Celadon Gym, which was probably the most beautiful structure he'd ever seen. It was a shining building made of jade light, the entire outside made of panels of green tinted glass that shone like emeralds. It was held together by two massive chunks of wood that had been thoroughly polished to shine. Vines were draped across them like lush, leafy green scarves.

He walked inside and immediately recoiled. An overwhelming, diabetes-inducing scent pervaded his senses, and he grimaced. He'd never smelt anything so potent in his entire life. It was as if he'd launched himself headfirst into Saur's heavy, pink bud.

It got better with time as he walked to the front desk, but he still couldn't help himself from grimacing in disgust. The receptionist smiled lazily at him. "Great aroma, isn't it?" she said.

Ash didn't know if she was joking or not. "Um, yeah," he said, not wanting to offend her. "But that's besides the point. My name's Ash Ketchum. I'm here for a gym battle."

The girl pursed her lips. "I'm sorry, but Leader Erika is taking her last gym challenge for the day," she said apologetically. "Would you like for me to put your name down for tomorrow?"

Ash blinked. "Well, I wanted a challenge for tomorrow itself, so, yeah, I don't mind," he said, chuckling. The receptionist nodded and typed in his name in the computer next to her.

"Would five thirty be fine?" she asked. Ash nodded. The computer was turned enough for him to read the names of the challengers properly if he leaned a bit forward. He murmured a thanks and was just about to walk away before something on the screen caught his attention.

He squinted to make sure he wasn't dreaming, but the name Misty Waterflower in the challengers section was pretty clear.

"Is that the Cerulean City Misty?" he asked, incredulous. The match timing showed that it would begin in about seventeen minutes.

The receptionist nodded, smiling. "The same one. The match will commence in some time and will be open to the public. Seats are available as of now, and the fee is three hundred pokédollars. Would you like to view the match?"

Ash nodded numbly. He knew that all gyms had seats for a viewing audience whenever a match would begin. This was just another way for the league to earn money; the only one who didn't have this feature were Blaine, Giovanni and Surge, reasons unknown. The only reason Ash had never had a paying audience to view his gym battles was because everyone viewed Brock's gym as cannon fodder and everybody knew that no one lost against the Sensational Sisters.

"Um, that would be three hundred pokédollars," the receptionist repeated. Ash blinked, then removed the required amount before exchanging the bills for a paper ticket from the receptionist. It took no cajoling for him to pay three hundred bucks for a battle between gym leaders; he wouldn't be surprised if the whole city had come to watch the fight.

"Enjoy your battle," the receptionist said, stretching the bills in her hand. Ash simply began to run towards the stadium, eager to watch a battle of this scale.

XxXxX

Ash walked into the bleachers, only to find it packed as densely as possible. A gaggle of Alakazam and Kadabra protected the bleachers with barriers between them and the field. So many people wanted to see a battle of this scale, and it reminded Ash a bit of the St Anne tournament. The whole crowd was roaring, waiting for the two gym leaders to come out and face each other.

The crowd grew louder as Erika Verdant and Misty Waterflower entered the field from the far ends, the former wearing an elegant kimono and the latter wearing her traditional yellow tank top with suspenders and blue denim shorts. Erika waved at the crowd with a smile on her face, but Misty looked like she didn't give a damn. Her jaw was set firmly and her face looked like it was carved from metal. Ash shuddered. He didn't want to imagine facing the alleged water-type master like this.

"Trainer Waterflower has challenged Leader Verdant for Mastery!" a voice boomed through the speakers. Ash noticed a commentator sitting in a booth above them. "This battle between the Celadon Gym and Trainer Waterflower will take place with three pokémon on each side. If the challenger manages to defeat all three of Celadon Gym's pokémon, they win the Rainbow Badge! There will be no time limit, no substitution and no usage of healing or stat-enhancing items. If those conditions are acceptable, the battle may begin."

The two gym leaders acknowledged each other with a nod and then Erika released her pokémon with a flourish and a tap of a button. Out came a strange, totem-like pokémon with a mane of white 'hair' and three sharp, green leaves at the end of each arm. Ash recognized the pokémon as a Shiftry, the evolved form of Nuzleaf. Erika's pokémon let out a deep rumble, bending low as it crossed its arms to take a battle stance.

Misty contemplated for a moment before releasing a large, red mollusc – an Octillery. The octopus snorted through its snout like mouth, spraying a weak fountain into the air. Misty muttered something, and it focused the mouth at Shiftry.

The referee slashed his hand down, and the battle began.

Shiftry lunged forward, holding a leafy hand at the side as it charged its target. The sharp leaves on its right hand elongated and turned blade-like as they glowed a bright green, as Misty's Octillery closed its eyes in concentration, focusing its energy at its mouth. The Shiftry handled the Leaf Blade like a sword and slashed the Octillery at its flank, making the mollusc grimace and groan in pain as it was knocked away. Erika snapped her fingers and Shiftry sprang back with its powerful feet, but not before receiving an Aurora Beam to the face by an enraged Octillery.

The wicked pokémon roared as the colourful beam of cold sent freezing shocks of pain and froze part of its face, the force behind the beam making it hit the ground on its back rather than its feet. Octillery slithered its way closer, firing a sickly-green beam from its mouth at Shiftry, the Signal Beam striking it in the torso and knocking it a few feet away.

But Shiftry wasn't done yet; no, it jumped back up and shook its strong, wooden arms in anger as Erika called an order at the same time Octillery launched a gunk of poisonous goo aimed straight for it, at such speed that it was only a purple blur. Shiftry flapped its fan-like arms, creating a gale of wind that slowed down the poisonous projectile enough for it to leap into the air to avoid the Gunk Shot, allowing the sludge to splatter on the psychic barriers before slowly sliding to the ground.

The crowds cheers overpowered the sizzling hiss caused by the Gunk Shot as Octillery took precise aim and fired yet another Signal Beam at an airborne Shiftry, an attack that the grass-type blocked by using Protect. Shiftry concentrated power into its leafy hands, then slashed them at Octillery, releasing twin blades wind of at Misty's pokémon.

Octillery obliterated one of the with a precise Water Pulse. The second one, however, curved the sphere of water from below with a gentle flap from Shiftry, making its opponent shriek in pain as the Razor Wind struck its slippery skin.

Misty clenched her fists and yelled at the top of her voice. Octillery nodded, before firing a Signal beam and an Aurora Beam consecutively, the first one missing by mere inches while the latter managed to clip Shiftry's foot as it touched the ground. Hard ice keeping it chained to the grassy terrain like a shackle, Shiftry snarled as Octillery launched an Ice Beam upon being ordered by a smirking Misty, until a line of Shiftry shimmered to existence in front of it, preventing the real Shiftry from being seen.

The powerful Ice Beam dispelled the illusions as it tore through the line of clones, vanishing in puffs of smoke in order to nail the real target. However, as soon as all the copies were destroyed, the Ice Beam simply struck the barrier, leaving a confused Octillery and Misty in its wake.

That was until something blurred from the leaves of one of the trees on the field and struck Octillery with a Leaf Blade. Shiftry, its speed heightened by Quick Attack, slashed Octillery across its right flank with the powerful grass-type move. Shiftry jumped back to Erika's side of the field with a push of its powerful legs, but Octillery managed to wrap a tentacle around Shiftry's wrist, the wooden creature taking the water-type with it.

Misty grinned. "CONSTRICT!" she yelled, loud enough for the audience to hear. The rest of its tentacles wrapped around Shiftry's airborne body and began to squeeze the life out of it. Shiftry roared, trying to break its limbs free, but Octillery's grip was too strong.

The two of them landed in a heap, with Octillery still wrapped around a struggling Shiftry, firing point-blank Signal and Ice Beams as it did so. Erika seemed to be weighing options, and a few seconds later she made her decision. "EXPLOSION!" she roared.

Misty yelled for Octillery to let go and get away, but it was too late. Shiftry was practically glowing with power and steam hissed around it as it began to glow an angry red. Octillery loosened its grip and pushed itself off of Shiftry, but then the wicked pokémon exploded, and it was all over.

Ash shielded his eyes as the bright light of a mighty detonation filled his vision. His eardrums rattled at the sound and the entire audience went quiet. When they opened their eyes, both Shiftry and Octillery were knocked out, their bodies limp and smoking.

Erika recalled her spread-eagled Shiftry with a sigh and a smile while Misty did the same. Misty acknowledged her opponent with grudging respect before switching her unconscious Octillery's ball with another. Erika did the same, and the two of them released their pokémon simultaneously.

Misty went for a Politoed while Erika chose a Vileplume. Misty smirked lazily, making Erika frown.

Erika ordered Vileplume to use a Sunny Day, and the grass-type complied, shooting a glowing sphere from the hole in its flower, which lined up with the sun and spread harsh sunlight over the field. Ash felt a little heat through the barriers, which was a testament of Vileplume's strength.

Finally Misty gave her order. "Perish Song!"

The crowd went silent as Politoed croaked melodiously in what seemed like a hundred voices mixing together, crimson sound waves erupting from its mouth, and Erika looked furious and was shouting. Vileplume, on the other hand, shuddered as the alien song pervaded its ears.

It was a cheap, underhand tactic, but an effective one. Perish Song was one of the strangest moves in the world. The song the user sang affected both the user and their opponent – in which both pokémon were allowed to use only three moves each before they were forced out cold by whatever mysterious powers constituted the Song.

Ash watched in anticipation as Politoed used its powerful, springy legs to jump around the field, from tree to the ground and vice versa. Erika was waiting, and so was Vileplume, the flowered pokémon's beady eyes tracking its speedy opponent. But the Sunny Day hadn't been used for nothing.

Erika muttered something, and then Vileplume suddenly blurred towards Politoed just as it launched itself into the air. Misty and her pokémon were shocked by its sudden speed, but Ash and some of the crowd weren't. Vileplume, like Saur, obviously had the Chlorophyll ability, which it was rightfully exploiting to beat its opponent in terms of speed.

Vileplume came to a halt exactly below where Politoed would be in a matter of seconds. The short yet powerful grass-type charged up a Solarbeam within two seconds, and let it rip a second before Politoed reached its peak. The ever-elongating beam of solar energy raced directly upwards and slammed into Politoed from below, exploding on its underside and sending the amphibian even higher into the air before it began to fall to the ground.

Politoed hit the ground with a thud and Vileplume took advantage of the jolt of surprise by jabbing it with a Drain Punch. The energy-draining attack knocked it away and sent it flying, but Politoed did a flip and its balance pretty easily.

Two hits were done. Vileplume had just one more shot to hurt Politoed or knock it out before Erika's pokémon would go out cold. Erika chewed her lip nervously, trying to figure out the best way for Vileplume to go out in style. "Get in close," she commanded, "then use Solarbeam."

"Jump!" Misty ordered. Her pokémon hadn't used a single move since Perish Song had been in effect, so Politoed was safe. The green frog leapt into the air, avoiding Vileplume's charge, but the blue-skinned pokémon released a Solarbeam in a sweeping motion. Vileplume's aim was good, but not perfect; the beam of solar energy clipped Politoed on the legs, tripping it in mid-air so that it landed harshly on its feet.

Vileplume's face strained in brutal concentration, then lost the strength in its legs as it began to fall down. Erika recalled it just in time before it began to inhale soil.

Most of the crowd cheered for Misty, but some of them jeered and booed the aspiring water-type trainer, but she didn't care. In fact, her eyes hardened even further, showing her determination for winning.

A ghost of a smile flickered over Erika's face before she released her third pokémon.

A massive Meganium burst onto the field roaring in a high-pitched voice as its powerful legs thudded on the ground. Ash knew this Meganium – Magnus, Erika's fourth-strongest league pokémon. The sauropod had an infamous winning streak, one larger than Erika's Venusaur or Tangrowth or Victreebel, who were her strongest, second- and third-strongest pokémon respectively.

Misty blanched at the sight of the green sauropod, but a few seconds later the blood returned to her face. With a grim look, she dramatically pointed at the large Meganium and called out an order to begin her attempt to defeat Erika's third and final pokémon.

Ash noticed that Politoed's legs had been hurt by the two Solarbeams and the harsh landing, so it couldn't jump as efficiently as before. It was also a bit slower, but much faster than Magnus, whose amber eyes tracked its opponent coldly and calculatingly.

Erika yelled an order, and then an exact replica of her Meganium formed next to the original one. The only difference was that it was paler, and that green energy flickered around its body from time to time.

The Substitute roared softly before charging alongside its creature. Magnus bared his teeth, before obliterating a tree Politoed had lunged towards with a Solarbeam. There was an explosion as the beam struck the tree at the exact same moment Politoed landed on it, and the frog flew out of the smoke before skidding on the grass.

Magnus closed his mouth like he was chewing on something, then the Meganium spat a hard, brown seed with great accuracy at a rising Politoed. The Leech Seed struck the amphibian on the shoulder, immediately sprouting thin vines that dug into its skin to attach itself and began to sap energy. A few, thin and short tendrils were seen spreading slowly from where the seed was attached.

Misty and Politoed both knew that they were on a time limit. It was time to go on the offensive.

An Ice Beam raced at Magnus, but the substitute suddenly appeared in front of the intended target and absorbed the hit head on, dissolving after the Ice Beam in a matter of seconds. Politoed added another Ice Beam, which Magnus countered with a Solarbeam, the two attacks meeting midway and kicking up a cloud of dust and smoke after the explosion was triggered.

Politoed sprang into the air, then fell down and landed on Magnus' back and crushed the beast under its weight. Falling to its knees by the Bounce attack, Magnus roared before a cloud of purple spores burst from underneath the ring of thick, sharp petals around its neck – Poison Powder. Unfortunately for Politoed, it breathed in right at that moment, unwillingly allowing the to in-inducing spores into its bloodstream.

Magnus bucked and threw Politoed off his back, but not before the poisoned water-type managed to hurt it with a particularly strong Ice Beam to the neck. And then the Meganium finally trounced his opponent, battering it with a Body Slam, followed with a flurry of curved, blade-like leaves that slashed Politoed and left it writhing. The sadistic, large grass-type then delivered the finishing blow with a ridiculously strong Solarbeam – it was literally overkill, because the Meganium collected solar energy for ten whole seconds before letting it loose point-blank at Politoed's face.

The cloud of dust didn't even need to be cleared up for people to know if Politoed was unconscious. Misty recalled her fallen fighter with a scowl before tossing a thoroughly scratched pokéball on the field, releasing the Starmie he'd seen back in Mt Moon.

Starmie was her ace. It was her strongest pokémon, as far as Ash knew. The one she'd used during Ash's gym battle was another, newly-evolved Starmie that had belonged to her sisters. Right now, he wasn't even sure if his team would be enough to handle the mysterious pokémon.

Ash didn't know who was going to win, but he was as eager as everyone else to watch the outcome.

Starmie started off by firing a bolt of lightning from its gem, and Magnus simply took it head on, then shrugging it off. The Meganium retaliated with an immediate Solarbeam, which Starmie dodged, followed by a Razor Leaf and then half a dozen Energy Balls simultaneously.

Starmie avoided the Razor Leaf, but got in the way of the first Energy Ball, which impacted its jewel and burst explosively. As soon as the dust cleared, Starmie set up a Light Screen, and then a Reflect at the same time, before fusing the two walls of light as it could not dodge the remaining Energy Balls. The rest of them were slowed down by the thick, protective barriers, but nevertheless hurt the many-legged water-type type.

A horizons spin later from Starmie, Magnus was still recovering from a Swift attack. Taking advantage of this momentary weakness, Misty's pokémon grabbed hold of its opponent before psychically lifting him in the air and then hurtling Magnus down backwards. The sadistic water/psychic-type wordlessly and emotionlessly slammed the sauropod into the ground several more times, until the captive suddenly let loose a Solarbeam that struck Starmie's jewel and made it lose its focus, letting him out of the psychic hold.

The Meganium rushed forward with the intent to Body Slam Starmie into the ground, but the starfish used Camouflage and turned near-invisible – near because light still refracted light, making the Starmie look like it was made of pure glass. Still, Magnus missed it, and ended up hurting himself as he hit the ground.

Ash groaned along with half the spectators as Starmie fired a true Confuse Ray, scrambling Magnus' mind and turning him momentarily insane. The brain-twisting attack made Misty look sure of herself, but Erika was still smiling.

A Solarbeam ripped the air, missing Starmie by mere inches. Magnus was still definitely confused, but he was now more dangerous as he was attacking mindlessly. If Starmie got hit by a few more of them, the fight would definitely end.

Magnus rushed around and began generating more Solarbeams, struggling to hit some invisible enemy while Misty exploited his confused state, although Starmie stayed far away to have enough time to dodge from random Solarbeams. Icy rays arced from Starmie's gem, slamming into Magnus' flank and making him roar in outrage. Starmie kept floating away, firing Ice Beams, Flash Cannons and Thunderbolts alike. Magnus kept running aimlessly and letting random Solarbeams rip, until a stray blast of solar energy smashed into Starmie's side and sent it spinning to the ground.

Magnus' hearing must've been intact, because the Meganium released a powerful Energy Ball twice the size of his head at a rising Starmie. The mysterious pokémon was knocked on its front, the large red jewel in the centre blinking to signify its low health.

Misty gritted her teeth. "Gravity!"

Starmie rose slowly, then slammed its lower appendages down, releasing a ripple of energy throughout the ground, like waves on a beach. Magnus yelped helplessly as it was crushed to the ground by an unseen force, his otherwise strong muscles weak against the psychic-induced gravity.

Then it was all over. A powerful, highly condensed Hyper Beam later, Erika's Meganium lay unconscious on the ground. Starmie spun over and gently prodded it with an appendage just before it was recalled into its pokéball.

Misty breathed a sigh and recalled her Starmie. The water-type was almost as battered as Magnus, and another attack would've turned the tables in Erika's favour. Still, Misty and her team triumphed, but it wasn't to say that Erika had done a shoddy job, either.

If it wasn't for that sneaky Perish Song, Erika's pokémon would've trounced Misty's. While Politoed was fast, Erika's Vileplume was faster with the added boost due to Chlorophyll and would've made mincemeat of the frog in minutes. Then all that they'd have to face would be Starmie, and while it was superfluously strong, there was no way it could take down two grass-type without being knocked out.

The roar of the crowd was deafening, and while Ash liked Erika he made sure to cheer on Misty's victory. For the first time in the match, Misty's face broke into a true smile and she blushed. The two Gym Leaders walked towards each other and met in the centre of the field, where they shook hands before Erika took out a Rainbow Badge from her kimono and held the multi-coloured trinket high for everyone to see.

The spectators cheered even louder as Erika pinned the badge on Misty's suspenders. Misty smiled wider, then bowed as a sign of respect before one again shaking hands. The emcee rambled off a few more words, and then people began to stream out of the bleachers.

Ash quickly walked out, his heart still racing from the battle he'd seen. While they were certainly not the strongest set of battles Ash had even seen – Giovanni, Lance and Alder refuted that – their pokémon were still immensely strong. Ash knew that his friends had only a fraction of the power Erika's and Misty's pokémon had, but he was waiting for the day he would triumph over them.

Ash waited outside the doors of the battlefield, waiting for the two gym leaders to come out with a few other spectators. While these fanatics wanted autographs and whatnot, Ash simply wanted to meet Erika and Misty and congratulate them on a battle well done.

The doors to the battlefield opened and out came Misty and Erika, both of them with resigned expressions, as if they expected this. He saw Misty slipping Erika a ten pokédollar bill as discreetly as possible as they signed notepads and took pictures or whatnot.

Ash remained behind and waited for everyone to clear out. Once the fanatical spectators had left, Ash cleared his throat and spoke up. "Erika?" he said.

Erika turned her head in Ash's direction with squint-eyes. Then her eyes lit up in recognition. "Ash?! _Ash Ketchum_?!" she exclaimed, grinning. "Mother of Mew, I can't believe it!" She rushed him and pulled him into a hug not unlike the ones his mother gave him, then pulled away and pinched his cheeks a little too hard for his liking. "Wow, you look like a real trainer now! How long has it been?"

Ash shrugged, still wincing from the pain in his cheeks. "Two years, I guess."

She huffed. Then she smiled once again. "Did you come to see my gym battle?"

Ash nodded. "I actually just came to challenge you, but when I saw who you were up against right now I just had to take a look." He waved at Misty, who grinned back.

"Hiya back. I'm a bit surprised to see you here, though," said Misty. "I figured you would've directly travelled to Celadon after Vermillion, you know."

Ash shuddered, thinking about the St Anne. "I, uh, got caught up in a few things in Vermillion."

Misty must've figured out what he meant, because she lowered her eyes. "I see."

"How's everyone else?" Erika asked. "Delia, Daisy, and Gary?"

"They're fine." Ash shrugged. "Gary's as cocky as ever, though."

"Some things never change." Erika laughed daintily. After a moment, she looked at him suspiciously. "You didn't choose a Charmander as your starter, did you?"

Ash's eyes widened. He remembered Erika's noogies all too well. "No way!" he exclaimed. "I chose Bulbasaur, fair and square! Saur's one of my strongest pokémon now. I bet in a year or two he'll be able to take on your Venusaur."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Erika said in a singsong voice. "Anyway...What are you going to do now, Ash? Celadon is amazing. There are a lot of place you can explore over here, like the Celadon Departmental Store, the Game Corner, the Contest Hall, and the Freak's Game headquarters—"

"The ones who made the pokémon simulator games?" Ash said, incredulous.

"Yep," Misty said. "I went there, but it's boring. Just a bunch of geeks talking about coding and whatnot. But you should definitely check out the Game Corner and departmental store. They've got the best stuff there, as far as I know."

Ash nodded. He was anyways going to pay a visit to the famous departmental store to purchase a few TMs for his pokémon, but from what he gathered by Misty's and Erika's suggestions, he wouldn't mind visiting the Game Corner either. If he was lucky enough, he could win back the money he would spend on those TMs the Celadon Store had to provide. He didn't care much for the Contest Hall, though, as those were primarily for pokémon coordinators who collected ribbons instead of badges to participate in the regional Grand Festival. It was also for trainers who wanted to have some fun, but Ash hadn't a clue in the world as to what to do if he would participate.

"When's your battle, Ash?" Erika asked.

"Um...I guess around five thirty," Ash answered. Then he grinned. "Don't expect me to hold back!"

"I could say the same to you," Erika shot back. "Now get out of here!" she said, smiling. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Ash gave her a thumbs-up, and followed Misty, who had decided to give him a tour of the mall in after she would give her pokémon for a check-up. His pokémon were still being treated, so he would have quite some time to go and purchase the TMs he needed.

XxXxX

Ash quickly found himself staring at the massive array of TMs displayed in the Trainer Necessities section of the store. His eyes roved through numerous, coloured disks – their prices ranged from two thousand pokédollars for common ones to 50,000 for the rarer and more powerful TMs like Hyper Beam, Giga Impact, Blizzard, Overheat, etcetera. While Ash certainly wanted those expensive TMs, he didn't want to go bankrupt – they were too expensive for the time being – but that didn't matter, as only those with seven or more badges, or those licensed by the League could purchase the latter set of TMs

Ash purchased the Ice Beam TM for Hydrus. It was a one-time only TM, since he didn't have any other pokémon to teach it to. It would certainly give him an edge when the Golduck competed against grass-types and he really wanted to win the Rainbow Badge.

He bought the TM Brick Break for Chimchar, which would allow the pokémon to pulverize Light Screens, Reflects, and Barriers if his opponent would ever put them up. Brick Break would also help Chimchar learn how to access fighting-type energy faster, since his secondary and tertiary stages were dual fire- and fighting-type pokémon.

Saur would be getting Venoshock. Venoshock allowed pokémon to fire poisonous, acidic liquid over an opponent in a stream – it was very much like Sludge and Sludge Bomb, except for one tiny difference. Venoshock would react to any existing poison in the targets bloodstream to magnify the effect, therefore powering up Venoshock's strength if the opponent was already poisoned.

Ash had purchased this particular TM with a combination move in his mind – he would also teach Saur Toxic, which he already had with him. Toxic would be a major component for what Ash had in mind. He'd teach Saur to mix Toxic with Venoshock to increase the chance of hitting the enemy, as well as double the power when Venoshock would hit after the target would be poisoned. Ash decided to call this particular vexing combination Toxic Shock. Granted, it wasn't the most creative name, but Ash was trying to win faster, not show off his creativity for specialised techniques.

Ash sorely wanted to buy the Solarbeam TM, but he didn't need to as the Celadon Gym handed out Solarbeam TMs to winning trainers. It was a further incentive for trainers to train their pokémon as hard as possible to win the battles.

For his last two TMs, he purchased Aerial Ace for Delphi and Dark Pulse for Screecher. Aerial Ace would be invaluable for Delphi to increase her already great speed, and Dark Pulse would give Screecher another dark-type move so that she could hit normal-type pokémon without the use of Payback.

"So, all done, Ash?" Misty asked as she caught up to him at the counter. She too had a few TMs in her cart, but far fewer than Ash.

Ash nodded. "Yep. What TMs did you buy?"

Misty hummed. "Hyper Beam, Blizzard and Flamethrower."

Ash's eyes bugged out at the mention of the first two. "Hyper Beam _and_ Blizzard?" he said, incredulous.

She nodded. "I don't spend much money on supplies and medicines, because I rely on my Slowbro's ability to heal the rest of my pokémon with Heal Pulse, so I end up saving a lot. Still, there are a few injuries even Slowbro can't heal, so I do buy potions and other stuff from time to time.

"Plus," and now she was smirking, "I'm also a gym leader, so I do get a monthly salary, you know."

Oddly enough, that did make sense. "What's Flamethrower for, then? I don't see you having any fire-type pokémon."

She giggled. "That's for my Slowbro. Yes," she said, smiling at the way Ash's eyes widened, "Slowbro can learn Flamethrower via TMs. I need a counter to grass-types if Ice Beam doesn't work, or if I just want to see them go slack-jawed."

"Yeah, I can imagine that," Ash said dryly. Even he would be surprised if someone would pull it on him during a battle. He'd be incapacitated for a few seconds, at least.

They reached the counter a few moments later and the cashier started totalling up their purchased items quickly. Ash's selected TMs drained most of Ash's money, but he still had a few funds to prevent himself from going broke. Plus, the lightness of his wallet only furthered his determination to defeat as many trainers as he could.

Misty was likewise, but she told him that she had some money in the Kanto Federal Bank, so she still had a few funds if the money she carried was spent. Ash, however, had no such luxury. He relied only on his wallet, a wallet that had become as light as a balloon after buying such expensive items.

Once they were done, Ash and Misty headed to the Pokécenter and collect their pokémon. He was eager to apply the newly purchased TMs to his team and test their capabilities.

XxXxX

Ash and Misty quickly took their pokémon back from Nurse Joy before escaping to one of the training fields of the Centre. Their pokémon were in tip-top shape, and the trainers were eager to give their pokémon weapons they could hone.

Ash first applied the Venoshock TM to Saur, and watched with barely concealed impatience as the pokéball in the TM case glowed purple. Then he put Chimchar's pokéball in the slot along with the Brick Break. Screecher got Dark Pulse, Delphi Aerial Ace and Ice Beam went to Hydrus.

After that, Ash released his pokémon and gave them a rundown, Misty watching his pokémon in curiosity. She had given Hyper Beam to her Seadra, Blizzard to her Octillery and Slowbro received the Flamethrower TM. She had yet to test the new moves, but decided to watch Ash's team and gauge their skill level.

"Hydrus, you're up first." The Golduck stepped forward and Ash pointed at a dead tree. "Ice Beam."

Hydrus cracked open his beak, a ball of icy energy forming in his open mouth. A few seconds after charging, the a beam of bright blue energy burst from the orb, tendrils of cold breaking through as it raced towards its intended target. The beam hit the thick bark, encasing the area in a thick, craggy shell of ice. Ash beamed at his friend.

"That was great!" While Ash had to work on Hydrus' aim, the attack was still obviously powerful. "Chimchar, you're next – Brick Break."

Chimchar screamed a battle cry before rushing forth, his right hand engulfed in orange energy. He swung his opened palm in a sideways chop, smashing into the ice and spreading cracks through the icy shell. A few, small chunks of frost broke apart and fell down, and Chimchar huffed before running up to his trainer.

Ash smiled as Chimchar climbed up his arm and onto his back, weighing him down a bit. "Good job, buddy." He scratched the chimp under the chin, Chimchar basking under the praise.

Saur walked in front, leering at the battered tree. "Okay, Saur, use Venoshock!"

Saur opened his fanged mouth before spitting an unsteady stream of green, poisonous liquid. The viscous poison splattered against the frozen part of the tree, then slowly sizzled through the shell of ice and melted through the bark. A few chunks had hit the ground, making the grass hiss as the droplets of Venoshock burned through it.

Ash grinned and carefully petted his Ivysaur, whose mouth dribbled with green poison like drool. Saur slurped it up, not even wincing as he absorbed the remaining poison.

Unlike the other, Screecher simply floated in front, then concentrated a sphere of pitch-black energy in front of her body. With a burst, the Misdreavus launched it, the Dark Pulse speeding go the tree and exploding on contact. When the dust cleared, the trunk had finally broken and the top half was lying diagonally on the ground, connected only by a few layers of wood and lignin.

"Delphi, Aerial Ace!" Ash ordered, after several minutes of praising Screecher. He watched as the Xatu took to the air, performed a loop, then made a powerful dive.

All he could see was her form blurring towards the destroyed tree, covered in streaks of white light. After picking up speed, she suddenly disappeared – not quite like teleportation, but similar – and reappeared in front of the fallen part of the tree, smashing into it hard.

The trunk snapped in half as splinters flew into the air. Ash grinned. Aerial Ace was on par with her Shadow Ball and Psychic. She was going to grow into a powerhouse that would give elite trainers a run for their money – in due time, of course.

She landed next to him, and he stroked her feathers. "Good girl."

She nodded curtly. _Tha— you_ , she said erratically in his mind. Ash frowned. Delphi's telepathy was growing better, but it still wasn't perfect.

Ash looked at Luna and Zeus. "Sorry, you two, but I couldn't find any TMs suitable for you. I'm sure once you grow stronger I'll get you some. Alright?" he told the Clefairy.

Luna shrugged, the caught hold of his pants and smiled. Ash returned the gesture, while Zeus curled up by his feet.

"Is that it?" said Misty, after returning with her Starmie, Slowbro and Seadra. She and her pokémon had walked off to a different area so to not disturb Ash and his companions. When Ash nodded, she smiled and stifled a yawn. "Alright. I'm calling it a day, are you still going to be out here?"

"Yep," Ash replied. "I need to get in some training before I challenge Erika tomorrow. I can't just go in there without refining their skills now, can I?"

She smirked. "I suppose not." With a flourish, Misty recalled her pokémon and began to walk away. "See ya, Ketchum. I might be interested enough to watch your gym challenge tomorrow."

With that, the redheaded girl walked away. Ash just shrugged. It was pretty early in the evening, so he could put in a few hours of training for his pokémon before hitting the sack.

Ash put Hydrus, Chimchar, Luna and Saur in training together. Saur and Luna would launch large rocks with their vines and Psychic respectively at Hydrus and Chimchar, who would attempt to destroy them. Hydrus could only use Ice Beams while Chimchar could use Brick Break and Flamethrowers. The purpose of this exercise was to help Hydrus and Chimchar refine their newly-learnt moves while Saur and Luna would increase their strength in their vines and Psychic attacks.

Zeus and Screecher would be using Delphi for target practice. Delphi would be using Aerial Ace and nothing else to evade the attacks, while Screecher would be allowed to use just Dark Pulses. This was to make it easier for the Xatu to slip into Aerial Ace and to improve Zeus' and Screecher's aim for moving and airborne targets.

It was four hours later when he halted their training session. Chimchar's Brick Break was getting better, and so was Hydrus' Ice Beam, Screecher's Dark Pulse and Delphi's Aerial Ace. Luna could now lift and hurl heavy objects with ease, and so could Saur, lifting the boulders with his vines as if they were paper. All in all, Ash knew his pokémon were ready to take on Erika.

XxXxX

The next morning, Ash found himself standing in front of Misty, who had taken a seat in the Centre's lobby and was currently reading a recent issue of _Trainer's Weekly_. The redhead glanced up from an article about Surge (whose name she reminisced with a scowl) and looked up once Ash cleared his throat to grab her attention.

"Uh...Hey, Misty," Ash muttered hesitantly. "I was, uh, wondering if you could maybe..."

Misty sighed. Being the fourth Sensational Sister had prepared her for a lot of advances, and boy was she not in a mood. "Look, Ash, you're nice and all, but I don't think you should ask me out. You're only ten, for God's sake." There. That ought to put him off track.

Ash shrugged. "Okay, fair enough— wait, what?!" he exclaimed abruptly, his face turning red in embarrassment. "That's not why I came here for, Misty!"

Misty blinked, mildly surprised. "You didn't?" She chucked.

"No!" he refuted furiously. Ash's cheeks burnt in embarrassment, but a few moments later he composed himself. "I, uh... wanted to ask you if you could help me train my pokémon – Hydrus, in particular."

"What gives?"

"Well, I promised to teach him Hydro Pump once he'd master Psychic, but I don't know where to start," he elaborated, chuckling. "I just wanted him to get a head start, and, well, since you're aspiring to be a water-type master and all, I thought maybe you could help me..."

"Of course!" Misty agreed, her eyes gleaming. The prospect of training a water-type pokémon, no matter who it belonged too, always appealed to her, not to mention that she was going to have the opportunity to teach one of the strongest water moves. "That seems like a good idea. I have a few pokémon in preparation for my real team, so I'll teach your...Hydro, was it?"

"Hydrus. He's my Golduck," Ash corrected.

"Yeah, I'll teach him the basics alongside my own pokémon. Sounds cool?"

Ash's face broke into a grin. "Yeah! Thanks a lot, Misty," he said. "It's going to really help me and my team get stronger."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Misty asked rhetorically, sharing his grin. "Let's get started!"

XxXxX

It took a few minutes for Ash and Misty to gather their teams, and when they did they went out to the training field at the back of the Pokécenter. It was a surprisingly unsurprising fact that part of the field was occupied by a two other trainers, both girls about his age – one with neck-length blue hair with a white skull-cap on top, while the other had short, auburn hair, styled like a boys. Ash felt his eyes lingering on the girl with blue hair, much to his chagrin and embarrassment, when the girl noticed him staring and waved back.

Misty caught that action and leered playfully at him, tugging him by the collars of his jacket and practically dragging him to the other side of the field. "C'mon, lover-boy, you can stare later," she teased.

Ash blushed. "Sh-Shut up," he growled in a stammer. Misty simply snorted.

"Okay, release your pokémon," Misty said, and Ash did so. Luna, Saur, Delphi, Hydrus, Screecher, Zeus and Chimchar materialized consecutively after each other, disemboguing a cacophony of sounds at their release. Misty release a few of her pokémon and let Ash admire her team.

They were all water-type pokémon, which was pretty obvious. He already expected Starmie, Politoed, Octillery and Slowbro, but his eyes remained on the rest of her pokémon for a few seconds longer. Aside from her known pokémon, there was a Seadra, Poliwhirl, Wartortle, Kingler, and a rotund, blue rodent – a Marill.

"These are my pokémon," Misty proclaimed with a flourish of her hands. "I also have a Magikarp, but I don't want to release her outside water."

Ash stifled a chortle. "A-A Magikarp?!"

Misty turned red, partly in anger and partly in embarrassment. "I'll have you know that I'll have a Gyarados on my arsenal in absolutely no time!" she practically yelled.

"Okay!" Ash held up his hands defensively. "But why couldn't you just capture a Gyarados instead of that pitiful creature? I mean, with your skill level, your Starmie could easily take a young one out in a couple of Thunderbolts."

Misty looked away in slight shame. "Umfraidofgyarados," she mumbled a bit too fast and soft for Ash to hear.

"What?"

Misty groaned in irritation. "I said, I'M AFRAID OF GYARADOS!" she screamed.

The female trainers glanced at them nervously, but Misty didn't care. "Alright, fine, but you didn't need to yell it out so loudly," Ash groused. Then he perked up. "Where'd you get the Wartortle, by the way?" he asked, making the boy remember Gary and his cocky turtle. "They are pretty rare."

Misty smiled mysteriously. "I found a group of them near Vermillion City," she said haughtily. "They keep wrecking havoc, and the Ranger Corps never manage to find them. So I took it upon myself to hand them over to the rangers."

She bent down and petted the Wartortle, who cooed in delight. "Apparently they were all released by abusive trainers, and grew distrustful of humans altogether," she continued. "Long story short, I won the leader's trust and he decided to join my team; the rest of them are now part of the Vermillion Fire and Rescue department."

That sounded so clichéd that Ash wondered whether it belonged to a TV series where a kid got all the Kanto starters by winning their trust, but he shook his head. "Fine, whatever. Can we get started now, please?"

And with that, they began their training. Ash told Hydrus that Misty would help him learn the basics of Hydro Pump – that made the Golduck's eyes gleam eagerly with the prospect, and he almost tripped over himself trying to get over to the young Gym Leader. Misty walked not far away, with Hydrus, her Wartortle, and Poliwhirl, while she told Seadra and Marill to get into a mock battle and allowed her most experienced pokémon a period of relaxation.

Ash led the rest of his team away and began training them not too far away from the duo of female pokémon trainers. _They must be coordinators_ , Ash thought, because he could see and hear the two of them ordering to execute a combination of moves that looked more beautiful than anything. Ash shook his head and focused on his pokémon.

He made them run through the same drills as last night, but as Hydrus was with Misty it was only Chimchar against Saur and Luna throwing the rocks, which were helpfully provided by a lazy Kingler's Rock Slide.

Ash was working with Screecher, while Zeus continued target practice with Delphi. He had come up with a technique that would be invaluable in battle. He wasn't expecting her to master the variant immediately, but he still wanted to try it out with the ghost floating in front of him.

"Alright, Screecher," he told the Misdreavus. "I want you to use Dark Pulse, and aim it at the ground. However," he added suddenly, much to Screecher's curiosity, "instead of making it explode, I want you to spread out the dark energy. Imbue the field with the Dark Pulse."

Screecher looked confused for a second, but then she nodded and prepared a pulsating orb of dark energy in front of her slightly opened mouth. She held the sphere for a few seconds, then hurled it to the ground.

He obviously didn't expect her to master it on the first try, so, really, he shouldn't have been disappointed at all. Still, he couldn't help but sigh in disgruntlement, but formed a smile not a moment later. "Keep trying, Screecher. Remember – don't make it explode."

She tried the move a few more times, but failed in all attempts. The fourth time however, had Ash looking closer and he felt a spike of pride within as he saw the Pulse touch the ground and let a little dark energy ooze out on the ground, before the pulsing energy took over and it detonated.

Ash decided to leave Screecher to herself and moved onto the trio of pokémon – Chimchar, Saur and Luna. After watching his Chimchar cleave a small boulder in two with Brick Break, he told Saur to take a rest and practice Venoshock separately while deciding to hold a mock battle between Chimchar and Luna.

"Okay, are the two of you ready?" he said, and he received nods from both pokémon, although Luna reacted only after Ash repeated his question. She seemed distracted, and kept glancing over Chimchar's shoulder, but Ash just shrugged it off.

"Begin!"

Chimchar instantly spat a blanket of scorching embers, which Luna weathered with a Cosmic Power. The Clefairy darted around the next attack – a well-produced Flamethrower – and fired a concentrated beam of blue energy from her outstretched palms, courtesy of a Stored Power, but Chimchar quickly intercepted the racing beam of psychic energy with another stream of flames. The two attacks collided in mid-air and cancelled each other out in a burst of black smoke, which obscured the training field for a few minutes.

Luna seemed intent on finishing the battle quickly, because she tapped into the stored lunar essence of her body and drifted quickly through the smoke, but into the waiting arms of Chimchar, who immediately swiped at the Clefairy with sharp claws, ripping into the underside of her body and making her grimace in pain. The floating Clefairy tumbled to the ground in a heap, but quickly pushed herself up and immediately began to use Metronome, wagging her fingers, which began to glow an incandescent white light.

Suddenly, Luna smashed a fist into the ground, Chimchar looking around confusedly. The next second a spire of rock punched out of the ground and slammed directly into Chimchar's chest, the fire-type soaring into the air by the brute force of the Stone Edge. Ash winced as Chimchar landed harshly on the ground, then rose up, his breathing ragged.

"Good job, Luna," Ash praised, feeling a little bad at the sudden beating Chimchar had received. "Chimchar, try to keep up!"

Chimchar nodded, then screamed before rushing forth and jumping as nimbly as possible. Luna lashed out with a Wake-Up Slap, but Chimchar twisted and avoided the attack before wreathing himself in flames. With the additional boost of speed due to Flame Charge, Luna was knocked back and rolled until she came to a halt.

"Chimchar, try a Brick Break!" Ash suggested. "Luna, I want you to block them all!"

They barely acknowledged him with a nod before the two lunged into action. Chimchar lashed out with several, swift chops, most of them blocked by Luna. A few struck the Clefairy here and there, but with her fairy-typing it didn't hurt as much as it would normally. After ducking under another Brick Break, Luna grabbed hold of Chimchar with Psychic, lifting him into the air before smashing him into the ground with a thud.

The Chimchar hissed before running back at his opponent. Luna, unfortunately, had been staring somewhere to her left, and was blasted back by a quick Flamethrower from Chimchar.

Ash frowned. Chimchar continued to attack the fallen Clefairy, not giving her a moment to recover as he caught her under the chin with another swift chop. Luna was still blocking the continuous barrage of attacks with Defence Curl, but it was a half hearted attempt as the boy noticed her eyes glued to the pair of female trainers at his left.

Finally Luna let her guard down enough for Chimchar to smack her with a Brick Break. The Clefairy fell down with a thud, allowing Chimchar to pounce on her and attack her with Fury Swipes. Ash decided to end the mock battle then and there.

"Enough!"

The Chimchar immediately let go and jumped off Luna, landing besides her before helping his teammate up. Luna scowled at herself in anger briefly for losing to the newest teammate, before Ash sprayed a few potions on her and healed her up.

"Good job, the two of you." Chimchar puffed out his chest, but Luna looked down in embarrassment. Ash looked at her with a dissatisfied and confused frown. "Luna, what went wrong?"

The Clefairy looked up at him nervously, and Ash didn't miss the sideways glance at the coordinators. The two of them were battling it out – beautifully, mind you – with a Scyther that belonged to the blue-haired girl and a well-groomed, grey-furred cat with a spiralled tail that was trained by the other. Ash stared in brief awe at the powerful-looking and speedy bug-type, but its trainer seemed disappointed and annoyed at it.

"Scyther, I said elegant, not brutish!" the blue-haired girl said, exasperated, once Scyther had sliced into the Glameow's left flank, making the feline hiss and jump back in pain. The mantis pokémon rolled his eyes, and when its trainer called for it to dissipate her opponent's Glameow's Water Pulse into a fine mist, the Scyther cleaved the attack into two (ignoring the resulting pulsing waves of water and energy) before blurring forward and attacking with a Vacuum Wave.

Ash then heard her say, "If you keep this up I'm going to be desperate enough to release you," to which the Scyther actually looked relieved. Then it looked at Ash with interest for a long moment, as if expecting him to do something, before its trainer got its attention back.

Ash turned to look at Luna. "Uh, you want to battle that Scyther, then? Is that what you're saying?" he said, taking a wild guess.

Luna let go of her nervousness for a moment and rolled her eyes. Then, with hesitation, she pointed at the coordinator's Glameow, who used a Swift attack and jumped onto the rays, using them as platforms to create an 'appeal', or whatever the hell it was.

Ash's frown deepened. "You mean to say that we should take a shot at contests? I don't know, Luna, maybe we should just stick to gym battles," he said, chuckling to ease the tension.

Luna just sighed and walked away, dragging her feet as if she had weights tied to them. Ash frowned after her, and then shook his head before resuming their training.

The who experience weirded Ash out, and made him feel a bit queasy. He'd expected to have a full team of only battlers, but here was Luna insinuating that she wanted to pursue Coordinating. Well, that wasn't going to happen soon. Ash had a one-track mind only for training and battling – he would think about pokémon coordinating in the foreseeable future.

He was snapped out of his reverie as he saw Luna suddenly spin around to unleash a Magical Leaf attack, grabbing hold of them in mid-air with Psychic before she tapped into her lunar essence and floated through the immobilised, colourful leaves, touching each of them with her foot so that it seemed as if she was using them as stepping stones. It looking incredibly amazing and Ash felt a sudden, strange swell of pride as she performed a flip and landed on the ground.

Saur, Chimchar, Zeus and Delphi looked puzzled, while Screecher was giggling in amusement. Luna blushed at their reactions, and the blush deepened when she noticed Ash staring at her mouth agape. The Clefairy seemed proud when she noticed the two coordinators not too far away staring at her in bewilderment and amazement. Luna shook herself and then continued to lift rocks and hurl it at Chimchar, but the Chimchar was gawking at her so intently that the boulder struck him and sent him tumbling away.

"That was great!" one of the coordinators said. Ash learnt that it was the one with short hair, and looked fired-up with delight. The one with the skull cap looked equally impressed, and they began to walk towards him, making Ash grow nervous and Luna excited.

"What was that, Ketchum?" Ash turned to see Misty also approaching him, a slight smirk on her face. Ash was blushing nervously and he looked at Luna in befuddlement. What was she playing at?

"Wow!" The coordinators finally reached him and looked at him with big smiles. "Your Clefairy is great! Are you a coordinator, too?"

Ash shook his head. "N-No," he stuttered. "I'm just a trainer. I'm an aspiring pokémon master, actually."

The short-haired one shook her head with a wry smiled. "Aren't they all," she said dryly. "Anyway, your Clefairy's moves were great either way. I'm Zoey, by the way," she said, holding her hand out in a way of greeting.

"And I'm Dawn," the other one said cheerfully, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Ash shook their hands. "I'm Ash," he returned, smiling. "So, the two of you are coordinators, right?"

"Yes, Captain Obvious," snapped Misty. Ash scowled at her.

"Well, Clefairy is really well trained, I'll have to give you that," Dawn praised, making Ash grin and sweat a bit as he thought of a good enough reply.

"Uh, thanks. So is your Scyther," he responded, even though he'd seen her pokémon's crappy performance.

Dawn rolled her eyes while Zoey chuckled. "Liar," she said cheerfully. "We all know that Scyther's absolutely abysmal at contests. I saw you watching a bit. He'd rather battle like a brute than perform coordinating techniques – uh, no offence."

"None taken," Misty said before Ash could.

Ash smiled. "Well, I really didn't know before now that Luna was interested in contests," he admitted. "She seemed really captivated by your training."

"Likewise with Scyther," Dawn said, looking at her pokémon with a dry smile, the powerful bug-type huffing in annoyance. "I actually had to yell at him so that he'd pay attention to me. It looked as if he was almost going to join your training regime."

"Then why don't you trade them?" Zoey suggested boldly.

If anything took Ash by surprise, it was that.

"Wh-What?!" Ash exclaimed, Dawn looking equally startled.

Misty tapped her chin in thought. "Hmm, that _is_ a good idea," she murmured aloud. "I mean, look at it: Luna obviously prefers contests over battles as of recent events, and Dawn's Scyther hates coordinating as much as your Clefairy loves them..." She suddenly grabbed Ash by the sides of his head and shook him. "The facts are staggering, Ash!" she screamed in his face, spit flying. Saur growled a little at the behaviour of his trainer, but didn't do anything except give Misty a warning by tapping her on the shoulder with his vines.

Ash felt like his brain had been rattled in his skull, and it took a moment for his eyesight to recover. He glared at Misty, before looking at Luna's pokéball with a deep frown of concentration.

"That seems a little out of place...I mean, Luna chose to come with me way back in Mt Moon," he muttered, but was shocked to see Luna looking at Dawn with excitement in her eyes. Ash felt emotions such as anger, sadness, bewilderment and shame bubble inside him – anger at the fact that Luna looked at other trainers with the same expression as she beheld him; sadness at the fact that she did so; bewilderment as to why she looked at Dawn in that manner; and shame for feeling angry at his friend.

Dawn seemed to think on the same grounds at Ash. "B-But that's so weird!" she sputtered. "Even though Scyther doesn't like coordinating, it doesn't mean that I'll trade him for a pokémon that _does_. And what if it doesn't like me? I can't see Ash's Clefairy separating so easily from him."

Luna was torn. She took an immediate liking to Dawn, just as how she'd taken an immediate liking to Ash way back when. There was just something about the girl that made her feel _happy_ , and _bubbly_ , the same feelings that Ash invigorated within the Clefairy. But, as much as she loved the idea of performing and wanted to join Dawn on her quest to become a top coordinator, she couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt when she looked at the absolutely _hurt_ expression on her trainer's face.

"Yeah." Ash nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat as the image of Luna standing next to Dawn appeared in his mind once again. "What if Scyther doesn't like me, either? And what if Dawn doesn't take care of Luna—?"

"Hey!" Dawn yelled in anger. "I'm not one of those junkies that view pokémon as tools to achieve success and fame, mister! I look at them as equals, as friends. So don't you dare compare me to those kind of trainers, alright?!"

Zoey placed a placating hand on Dawn's shoulder to calm her down, Ash taking a step back in mild fear and surprise. "Sorry," he apologised in a sincere tone, but his next words were true and harsh. "But, hey, as Luna's trainer, I have to consider every possibility for her safety. I can't just blindly give her away to some random trainer I met not five minutes ago. Would you do that to your own pokémon – just give it away to the first trainer you saw?"

Dawn stood there with her mouth open, her face reddening in embarrassment. She hung her head. "I-I didn't mean to sound rude," she uttered. "I apologise."

"It's fine," Ash said dismissively. "I would've acted the same way if I was accused that way."

There was an awkward silence, but Zoey spoke up within seconds. "So, are y'all still going to carry out that trade or what?" she asked. Ash and Dawn glared at her, annoyed, and Misty let out a snort.

Ash sighed. "Luna," he muttered reluctantly, "do you wanna travel with Dawn or with me?" He silently prayed for her to choose him, but felt as if he'd been hit in the gut with a sledgehammer when the Clefairy shrugged after a moment of hesitation. The only thing that brought happiness to him was the fact that she seemed nervous when she did so.

"Great!" Zoey said, clapping her hands after Scyther did the same, although with a hint of sadistic glee flashing in the mantis' eyes. "Let's get to the Centre and get this trade done then, eh?"

XxXxX

They went back in the Centre within the minute, and with all their pokémon with them – except for Misty, who decided to keep hers out to continue trying to master Hydro Pump. Seeing that it was a good decision, Ash let Hydrus back at the training ground, too, but kept the others with him.

Ash kept Luna outside her pokéball, the Clefairy holding into the hem of his pants as they walked briskly. Ash resisted the urge to look at her with grandfatherly disapproval, because he didn't want to seem annoying by doing so. Still, it was hard for him to see Luna so easily ready to go to another trainer, one that she'd just seen an hour ago. A single, prominent thought kept running through Ash's mind: had he even known her these past few months?

He very much wanted a Scyther, there was no doubt about that – Scyther were on a completely different level compared to other bug-types – but not at the cost of one of his friends. Scyther were one of the rarer pokémon of Kanto, and had a league of their own. Even though they were bug-type pokémon they could take hits thanks to their hard carapace and give them back with the help of their metal scythe-for-arms; and were amongst the fastest pokémon Kanto had to offer, second only to the likes of Jolteon and Electrode. Their evolved form, Scizor, grew only stronger.

But as Ash stepped off the escalator with Misty, Luna, Zoey, Dawn, and her Scyther, Ash couldn't help but think about the time he'd spent with Luna – how she'd trusted him enough to leave her colony and join him on his journey, how she had won him the Thunder Badge by finally bringing Surge's formidable Raichu down, and how the Clefairy had fought with him and the rest of the team aboard the St Anne, amongst many other memories. He felt like his legs were moving on their own as he walked towards the giant trading machine, where a Nurse Joy was waiting.

"Hello!" she said cheerily. "Are you here to conduct a trade?"

"I think so," Dawn said, frowning slightly.

Ash sighed. "I mean, we've spent so much time with our pokémon...I don't know if it's the right thing I'm doing, even if Luna does want to go with Dawn." He looked at Luna, who was staring at both Ash and Dawn in adoration.

Nurse Joy shook her head. "Trainers need to adapt to new pokémon in the same way pokémon do to new trainers," she mentioned. "What's important is the welfare of your pokémon. If your pokémon wants to go with another pokémon, you can't exactly for it to want to go with you, right?"

"Why don't the two of you see the other in action then?" Zoey suggested. "I mean, we have our battle round at the Contest Hall in some time – you and Clefairy can come watch Dawn and I perform – and then Dawn can watch you battle another trainer, or something. If you're still unsure, well, then...we'll go our separate ways. Is that okay for you guys?"

Ash shrugged. "That's fine," Dawn said. "Shall we go?" They all nodded. As he followed Dawn and Zoey to the Celadon Contest Hall, Ash couldn't help but feel that nothing much would go right today.

XxXxX

"Hello, and welcome to the Celadon Contest's Battle Stage!" declared the master of ceremonies from her booth, much to the crowds happiness. "I'm Lillian Meridian, your host for the evening, as always! Now, without further ado, let us begin the next stage of this Contest: The Battle Stage!"

The crowd roared, and Ash clapped his hands, albeit half-heartedly. On either side of him sat Misty and Luna, both looking eager at the proceedings. Ash wished he'd never asked Misty for help, otherwise he'd never have even met Dawn. Strangling her friend Zoey didn't seem like such a bad idea now, either.

"Our eight coordinators that have managed to advance to the second stage are: Joe Quinn, Brian Murray, Kenny Sampson, Dawn Berlitz, Armistead Whitson, Zoey Hope, Sarah Pretchamphone and Aldrich Killeen!"

Eight coordinators poured out of the tunnel that lead to the stadium, all of them wearing elaborate and designer costumes along with wide smiles. Several of them – including Dawn – looked exceptionally cheery and waved at the crowd in exhilaration, but the rest had stiff backs and stony expressions.

Luna squealed along with the roaring crowd, and Ash couldn't help but smile at her happiness, despite the probability of her going with Dawn for the rest of her life. "Our first battle performance of the day will be: Aldrich Killeen versus Brian Murray!"

It was exhilarating. Beautiful. Angelic. The first thing Ash learnt was that coordinators were deviously smart – they thought on completely different levels to trainers. While most trainers got their pokémon to straight up fight, sometimes even implementing a few strategies, coordinators thought of things most people _didn't_. Ash watched in rapt attention as Aldrich Killeen's Houndoom used its flames as a makeshift shield, only for it to falter when a raging Sandstorm was whipped up, courtesy of Brian Murray's Sudowoodo, with his Flareon using Scary Face in the eye of the cyclone to project a frighteningly enlarged image in the sand, scaring Aldrich's two pokémon witless. The battle ended with Brian having exactly half of his points left, and Aldrich with only a little over quarter of his original amount, making Brian Murray the winner of the battle.

Ash could finally see why Luna wanted to pursue coordinating, and, honestly, he couldn't blame her.

Ash watched the next two five-minute battles proceed, with Zoey winning hers by destroying Sarah Pretchamphone in an embarrassing fashion, and a guy named Kenny Sampson triumph over his opponent by barely a few points. The final match of the first round of the second stage was between Dawn and Joe Quinn.

"And our final match of the first round is between Dawn Berlitz and Joe Quinn! Give it up for our two aspiring top coordinators, everyone!" yelled Lillian Meridian. The crowd screamed, a few of them waving signs in the air. Ash and Misty clapped and cheered equally hard for Dawn, but not as much as Luna did.

"Coordinators, please send out your pokémon!" said Lillian Meridian.

Four bursts of red light followed that order. Joe Quinn had released an Arbok and a green-and-red bug that resembled a dragonfly – a Yanma. The snake gave Ash bad memories about the Pokémon Tower, but he forced himself to realise that the one in front of him wasn't the same. The Yanma's flight was perfect – it didn't so much move as it hovered in the air with its barely visible wings.

Dawn, on the other hand, had chosen a brown rabbit and a white-and-blue furred critter. His pokédex identified them as a Buneary and a Pachirisu, respectively. Ash eyed the two of them speculatively – they didn't look strong, but looks can be deceiving – while the host commented on the respective choices.

"And Berlitz has chosen a Pachirisu and Buneary as her pokémon!" said Lillian Meridian. "Dawn Berlitz has already managed to acquire two ribbons primarily because of her Buneary and Pachirisu, along with her Piplup and Noctowl, which we had seen back in the appeals round. Will she be able to live up to her mother's name? Let's find out!"

The large scoreboard overhead blinked to life, showing Dawn and Joe with their entire circle of points. A digital timer was between Dawn's and Joe's photos, and there were only ten seconds until the battle began.

 ** _Three...Two...One...Blink!_**

Joe began the battle by ordering his Arbok to use Haze, covering half the field with pale, opaque smoke and making Joe's pokémon disappear from sight. The entire crowd watched as a couple of Sonicbooms burst from the smoke, spinning towards Dawn's pokémon like translucent-blue scimitars – but the only major difference was that the two attacks had fused together, allowing the Sonicbooms to gain streaks of the Haze streaming from them. Ash couldn't help but be impressed by the technique – if the Sonicboom-Haze hit their intended targets, not only would they get hurt, but Buneary and Pachirisu would also be momentarily blinded by the smoke.

Dawn seemed unfazed, however.

"Ice Beam!" she said. Buneary nodded, then twin beams of blue energy streaked out of its mouth, crystallising the Sonicboom. Joe frowned at the failure of his technique as a few points were cut from his total, but the frozen Sonicbooms were still shooting towards Dawn's pokémon. "Pachirisu, destroy them with Thunderbolt!" The white-furred squirrel nodded as its cheek-pouches sparked before unleashing dual bolts of yellow electricity from them, striking the frozen Sonicboom head-on and making them explode in a shower of mini-crystals, the streaks of Haze rippling outwards. The minimized crystals rained down on the field, causing Joe to lose several more points and have only a little over three-fourths of his original amount remaining.

"And an amazing way to counter Quinn's contest combination!" Lillian Meridian said. "Berlitz has got the upper hand for now, but will Quinn be able to turn the tables?"

Joe scowled. "Poison Tail-Silver Wind!"

Arbok coiled on the ground, then sprang into the air, tail glowing a sickly-purple as it did so. Yanma flew – or rather hovered – into the air at the same time, flapping its wings to kick up a silvery, glittery gust straight at the Poison Tail. The end result was bizarre. As soon as the streams of Silver Wind struck the tail, they changed into what looked purple missiles, shooting straight for Dawn's pokémon duo and making her lose a few points in the process. Dawn ordered for Buneary and Pachirisu to destroy them with the same combination, but the combination move was too fast, and the icy coat the bullets of purple gained only served to strengthen the attack, causing Dawn to lose a few more points, and be on equal footing with Joe Quinn.

Dawn grit her teeth and then ordered a Thunderbolt and Ice Beam at Yanma and Arbok respectively, which Buneary and Pachirisu did. Ash thought that it was a rather good move. Electric-type attacks dealt quite a lot of damage to part flying-types like Yanma, and while Ice Beam wasn't super-effective against Arbok, it would certainly make the serpentine poison-type pokémon's movements sluggish due to its cold-bloodedness. Most poikilothermic creatures weren't weak to ice-type attacks (pokémon like the Snivy line and Treecko line were weak to them, to name a few) but the absence of heat would definitely make the pokémon reduce its movements to conserve heat and energy.

But Joe had a counterattack. The wiry boy yelled something like, "Sludge Shield!" causing Arbok to spit a stream of poisonous goo as it spun, creating what seemed like a wall of viscous poison. Ash didn't see any purpose for it when Arbok stopped emitting the sludge – the attack would simply fall to the ground – but the Sludge Bomb suddenly froze in mid-air. The source of this action was Yanma, whose eyes were lit with blue aura as it used Psychic and slowly reconstructed the sludge to form a wall of deep purple that circled Joe's pokémon. Dawn scowled at the Thunderbolt was absorbed by the sludge while the Ice Beam simply froze part of it before ceasing, a few points being cut off from Dawn's remaining total.

Ash couldn't believe how long that frail looking was holding up so much of poison, but a second after he thought this the Sludge Shield was flung outwards, splattering on the ground and making it a poisonous field, while also making it hard for Buneary and Pachirisu to manoeuvre it. So of course a few more points went away for that.

At this point Dawn looked desperate, because there was only a minute and a half left, with Joe Quinn leading by several points. "Ice Chandelier, dome formation," she said desperately, her two pokémon nodding.

Ignoring the toxic poisons on the field her two pokémon rushed forward, with Pachirisu in the centre of the and Buneary a good distance away. Arbok, who had no problem manoeuvring around the field, slithered towards its prey like a Sharpedo in bloody waters, fangs exposed. Yanma hovered high in the air like a watchful guard, but it was definitely tired from the usage of so much psychic energy.

Suddenly Dawn yelled something and Pachirisu exploded with light, blinding Yanma and Arbok with a Flash attack. Buneary had shut its eyes but still had spots in front of them. With their opponents momentarily stunned, the two of them set off to work.

Pachirisu fired a bolt of lightning straight into the air, striking Yanma dead on, making the dragonfly crash into the ground like a helicopter with clipped blades. But Ash's attention wasn't there. No, his eyes were wide in awe and surprise as Buneary trapped Arbok and Pachirisu in a dome of ice with an incredibly powerful Ice Beam. Buneary kept constructing the icy dome, its face locked in a rictus of fury and concentration as it did so until the dome was done, wherein it stumbled away and began panting heavily.

Ash could see the foundations of the dome weren't strong, but the end result was _fantastic_.

A bolt of lightning grabbed Ash's attention once again. Pachirisu, still inside the frozen structure, had fired a Thunderbolt inside, causing the electricity to ricochet and reflect from the translucent light, making it sparkle like a thousand diamonds. The contest combination was both incredibly appealing and destructive, as the electricity made the dome glitter and caused Joe to lose points, while they also kept shocking a trapped Arbok into oblivion. Pachirisu had no problem being hit by its own discharge; its Volt Absorb ability instead strengthened it, negating any attacks that Arbok managed to hit it with.

Lightning ricocheted off the inner walls of the dome, striking a writhing Arbok and rendering it helpless. Joe watched in shock and horror as his points kept depleting due to the magnificent blue hue the Ice Chandelier gained from the electric-type, his serpentine pokémon hissing and spitting poison half-heartedly as it was getting the shock of its life. Finally Joe had enough, because he recalled his Arbok back into its pokéball the same time as his points hit zero. Dawn had won the battle.

"And there we have it!" Lillian Meridian cheered along with the crowd as Pachirisu dug into the ground and disappeared, reappearing a moment later outside the dome of ice. It was a good thing Pachirisu used Dig to escape, because a second later the dome started to cave in, chunks of ice falling to the ground with thuds and cracks. "Dawn Berlitz is the winner of this match, and she proceeds to the semifinals!"

Misty sidled up next to Ash. "That was great, wasn't it?"

Ash nodded as he clapped. "Uh-huh."

She smirked. "You better get ready for that trade, then," she said. "Looks like your Clefairy was thoroughly impressed."

And that promptly put Ash into a bad mood again.

XxXxX

Ash didn't pay much attention to the rest of the contest, because he was too busy observing Luna. The Clefairy was even fonder of Dawn after watching the coordinator perform for real, and Ash couldn't help but feel disgruntled despite her obvious happiness at the prospect of joining Dawn on the journey when Ash had asked her again. He could also sense an air of melancholy and sadness around her as she did so, and he was really happy for that.

Dawn managed to defeat Kenny Sampson in the semifinals, allowing her to proceed to the finals, where she faced off against her friend Zoey Hope. It was a gruelling five minutes, but after the dust cleared and the timer reached zero, Zoey had managed to win by three points. Dawn looked disappointed more than upset – and was that a hint of anger and resentment in her eyes? – but she smiled and clapped like everyone else when Zoey was handed over the Celadon ribbon. Ash felt bad for her and sympathised, but he'd come here only to find out if Dawn was a competent enough trainer to meet Luna's standards.

Ash recalled Luna before making his way out of the Contest Hall with Misty right behind him. They waited at the entrance along with a few other spectators that just stood around in small clusters, jabbering about their personal lives or how the contest was or whatnot. Ash made small talk with Misty, which was majorly just laughing at her fear of bugs and crying at how she pounded his back like a Machoke in retaliation, until Dawn and Zoey exited the Hall.

"That was great, you two!" Misty said as Dawn, Zoey and a male coordinator that Ash recognized as Kenny Sampson walked over to them. Misty, Dawn and Zoey hugged. Girls tended to do that a lot.

"Yeah, but in the end I managed to win!" Zoey said a bit cockily, but Ash figured that she'd earned it. Dawn simply pouted.

"Yeah, you're just one ribbon ahead of me," retorted Dawn. "I'll catch up to you sooner than you think!"

Zoey smirked. "We'll see about that!"

"Don't forget about me, Dee-Dee!" Kenny Sampson said suddenly, sidling in between the two arguing coordinators and throwing an arm each over them, pulling them closer.

Dawn elbowed him in the ribs, making him gasp in pain and let go. "Stop calling me _Dee-Dee_!" she said angrily.

Kenny giggled. To Ash, he seemed... _feminine_ , to put in kindly. "Okay, Dee-Dee!" Dawn simply groaned.

Then he noticed Ash. "Who're you?" he asked curtly.

"He's Ash Ketchum, remember, I told you about him when you 'accidentally' entered our locker room?" Dawn said, with a roll of her eyes.

Kenny gave Ash an unnerving grin. "So you're the one with the Clefairy, huh?" he said. "Well, I can make you a much better offer for that beauty. A Scyther, really? I have rare pokémon from Sinnoh if you want 'em, like a Luxio, Staravia, or a Gloom—"

"I don't know you," Ash said coldly. For some unknown reason, Kenny just ticked him off. "And, last I checked, a Gloom isn't native to Sinnoh."

Kenny chuckled and missed the frostiness in Ash's voice. He attempted to speak again, but Dawn cut him off. "Kenny," she said in exasperation, "just shut up."

Kenny shrugged. "Alrighty. But my offer's still open, Kay-Kay."

Ash frowned in confusion. "Kay-Kay?" he reiterated, absolutely flummoxed.

Zoey rolled her eyes. "Kenny keeps giving people nicknames for some unknown reason. For example, he calls Dawn 'Dee-Dee', I'm 'Zo-Zo', and it looks like you're 'Kay-Kay'. It's really annoying, actually, and Kenny doesn't know when to stop."

"So you're Misty, huh?" Kenny said more to himself as he shook the gym leader's hand, unbeknownst to their conversation. "I'm gonna call you—"

"If you call me Mee-Mee or something, I swear to the Legendaries that I will chop your willy off and ship it to your mother via FedEx—"

"O- _kay_!" Dawn exclaimed hastily, cutting Misty's tirade short, while Kenny looked perplexed.

"...But I was gonna call you Stee-Stee," Kenny mumbled.

Misty was visibly shaking with rage.

Zoey sighed. "You're so dumb, Kenny." She looked at Ash, ignoring her male companion's squawks of protest at the earlier statement. "When's your gym battle, Ash?"

Ash shrugged. "Around five, five thirty. We still have"—he checked his watch—"an hour or two to kill. Plus," he added with a smirk as Misty's stomach grumbled, her cheeks glowing red, "I think someone's hungry."

"Sh-Shut up, Ketchum!" Misty groused.

They all took a bus that led to a bistro downtown, and five minutes into eating Ash cursed himself for not taking the driver's advice to not go there. There weren't many people in there at that time of the day, the service was pretty slow, and the food wasn't that great either. The owners were pretty rude, but it was amusing and frightening to see an altercation between a customer who had been waiting over an hour for a pizza and the owners, until they were pretty much thrown out.

"Man, I'm never going back to that place again," Ash murmured as they walked away from the _ABC Bistro_.

"I have to agree with you, Kay-Kay," Kenny said. Ash ignored him.

"That Sammy guy was a nasty piece of work," Dawn commented. Zoey bobbed her head in agreement, before snickering as she remember the scuffle between the owner and customer. "I hope that place goes under."

Zoey looked at Ash. "So, where to, Ash?"

"Well, my gym battle is about to start in half an hour," he informed. "Should we head there now?"

Misty smacked him across the back of his head. "Yeah, Kay-Kay," she said mockingly. Ash scowled. "Do you want the Rainbow Badge or not?"

"Of course I do!"

"Then let's get going!" she yelled. Dawn and Zoey giggled behind the arguing pair. "I didn't train your Golduck for nothing, you know."

XxXxX

The group took two cabs to get to the Celadon Gym, Ash riding with Misty (much to his happiness for not travelling with Kenny) and the three coordinators taking the next taxi. Fortunately for Ash, Kenny decided to head to the Pokécenter, and, with a yawn, the auburn-haired boy bid goodbye to the quartet and walked back to the Centre.

He had gotten used to the cloyingly sweet smell of the gym, and Misty seemed to be immune to it, but Dawn and Zoey looked like as if they'd tried kissing the express train. Ash couldn't hold back the smirk from surfacing, and that just seemed to annoy the pair of coordinators even further, to Misty's amusement.

The receptionist looked up from her sappy romance novel and smiled after a moment of hesitation. "Ash Ketchum, right?" she asked. Ash nodded. "Alright. Just go right through there. Spectators will need to pay three hundred pokédollars for viewing the match."

Misty smirked. "Gym Leaders get a discount, right?"

The receptionist finally recognized her and began to apologise profusely, and then said that she would only have to pay half the price. Dawn and Zoey were simply gaping.

"Well, what about coordinators then?" Zoey asked.

The receptionist simply smiled sickeningly. "I'm sorry," she said, as if it was second nature for her to do so.

Dawn and Zoey paid their money grumblingly, then followed Misty to the bleachers while Ash made his way to the field. He smiled as he saw Erika already taking her place at her trainer box, the kimono-clad gym leader waving her hand, a gesture that he returned.

Once Ash took his place in the challenger's trainer box, Erika spoke up. "Are you ready, Ash?!" she yelled. "This is your last chance to back out. No one'll make fun of you, I promise!"

Ash snorted. "I was going to tell you the exact same thing," he snapped back.

Erika giggled, breaking her character. "Let's see how long your cheekiness holds out, Ketchum. I just want to make one thing clear: I'm not going to hold back one bit!"

"I like a challenge," he said, twisting a pokéball in his hand.

His eyes flitted to the side, where he saw Misty, Zoey and Dawn taking their seats. He was happy that they were cheering him on, but he couldn't help but feel nervous. He just didn't want to make a fool out of himself, and the fact that there were several other random people in the audience, waiting to view the battle, didn't calm his nerves.

He also wanted to show his skills because Dawn had let her Scyther out. The mantis was eyeing him with interest and speculation, while his bladed arms made a few people in the bleachers nervous. He was going to make sure that the trio of girls would see his friends in their full strength.

Erika took out something from the sleeves of her kimono – a remote – and pressed the small, red button on it. Instantly, protrusions that resembled sprinklers jutted out of the four corners of the battlefield, before blinking red and erecting four protective barriers that reached all the way to the top. It was similar to the psychic barriers psychic-type pokémon implemented, but just a tad bit weaker and thinner.

A referee walked to the midway point of the side of the field and raised a flag. "This battle between Challenger Ketchum and the Celadon Gym is about to begin. Each trainer will be allowed to use only three pokémon, and the challenger wins if all of the Celadon Gym's pokémon are incapacitated or forced to be recalled. Fail to do so and miss your chance to acquire the Rainbow Badge. Release your pokémon!"

"I hope you can manage this one," Erika said, tapping the release on her pokéball to send out a Gloom. Thankfully, the presence of it made the sweet smell dampen due to the stench wafting from the drugged-looking grass-type. Ash eyed the Gloom with some interest, but he already knew who he was going to send out.

Ash released Hydrus outside of his confines. The aquatic creature glared at Gloom with scarlet eyes, flexing his sharp claws as the gem on his forehead glowed red. "Get ready, Hydrus," Ash told him. "The gym battle starts now."

"A water-type?" Erika said, incredulous. "Have you gone mad, Ash? I'm a grass-type gym leader, not Blaine." She snorted. Ash ignored her.

"Begin!" declared the referee, slashing her hand down.

"Sunny Day!" Erika ordered.

"Ice Beam, stop it!" Ash said. Gloom's ability was obviously Chlorophyll, and Sunny Day would make it much faster. Plus, it would also allow Gloom to fire a never-ending barrage of Solarbeams, and Ash certainly didn't want that.

Unfortunately, Hydrus was a bit slow. A ball of light, soared into the air until it lined up perfectly with the sun, spreading harsh sunlight over the battlefield. The only good thing that came out of it was that Gloom was struck in the side, the force behind the icy rays sending it sprawling to the ground.

"Ice Beam, again!" Ash shouted, Hydrus opening his bill to gather cold and frost at a focal point in his mouth. With a rear of his head, triplets of blue energy blitzed out of the energy orb, but Gloom had already gotten back up, shaking off the gather frost on its flank and arms before blurring away. The Ice Beam struck the rich soil and froze the earth in a foot long circle just as Gloom appeared at Hydrus' right, ready to carry out an order.

"Overdose!" shouted Erika.

Lowering its head, Gloom released a harsh spray of poisonous goo so dark and thick that Ash wondered whether it was tar. Due to its viscosity, it shot slower than normal at Hydrus, allowing him to escape, although a few chunks of the splattered on his tail and back as he leapt away.

Ash grimaced at the way Hydrus screamed in anger and agony, the liquid toxins hissing and steaming on the Golduck's skin. Ash hoped that his pokémon would shrug it off, and he did – Hydrus stood back up, glaring hard at Gloom – but only for the amphibian to convulse as a pulse of purple glow shuddered through his body.

Hydrus was poisoned. Ash cursed his luck; Overdose was probably a mix of Sludge, Toxic, and Acid, the latter which had given the combination move the viscosity and trashy colour. To conjure so many different types of toxins and release them simultaneously in such little time meant that Erika had trained this particular Gloom very well.

But it didn't mean that Ash was going to concede defeat so easily. "Hydrus, stay strong!" he hollered, although he wondered whether those words would actually help him much. "Psybeam!"

Erika frowned. "Double Team."

Illusory copies split from Gloom's body, the whole bunch of them scurrying around to hide the real Gloom, which they did successfully. Ash gritted his teeth. "Keep it going, destroy them all!"

With a sweeping motion, Hydrus moved his head in a sweeping motion, razing the clones into puffs of nothingness with a brilliant beam of pinkish red energy from his eyes. Gloom scurried around, releasing more and more clones to distract Hydrus, but the Golduck kept it going, finally getting lucky and nailing his real target on the back. With a grunt, the plant was knocked to the ground, but got back up and blurred away from an Ice Beam that froze the part of soil it had fallen upon.

"Get in close," Erika muttered. "Drain Punch."

"Confusion!" said Ash.

With barely a grunt, Gloom raced towards Hydrus. Raising its hands, which were engulfed in glowing orange energy, Gloom lashed out at Hydrus, the Golduck ducking under the first swing just as the second fist connected to his chin. The fist stayed stuck to Hydrus for a few seconds, health being absorbed from Hydrus in the form of glowing pustules that sank into Gloom's body.

The Drain Punch sent Hydrus back, but the Golduck managed to land on his feet, the impact sending shudders of pain through his strong legs. A split-second later, he raised his webbed claws, engulfing Gloom in a shock of psionic energy. It was yanked into the air, where it grimaced as the Confusion battered its mental defences and weakened it, before it plummeted to the ground, where it impacted with a thud.

He'd thought that Gloom would be easily knocked out with the psychic-type move, but frowned when it got back up, albeit tiredly. It still looked as if it was ready to go a few more rounds.

"Petal Dance!"

Ash clenched his fists as Gloom began to rapidly spin, letting loose a dozen thick, sharp petals at Hydrus. Ash didn't have to tell his pokémon to dodge – Hydrus began weaving his way around the swirling petals, ducking and twisting out of their path. "Scald!" Ash yelled. A burst of boiling water streamed out of the Golduck's beak, hitting Gloom in the face and knocking it away. "Psychic!" the trainer continued in excitement. With a wave of Hydrus' claw, Gloom was enveloped in blue energy, was heaved upwards, where it convulsed in pain before it was slammed back down.

But Gloom sprang back up, shaking its arms, albeit tiredly. Amber eyes glared hard at Hydrus, who sneered back, the ends of his mouth curled upwards. "Gloom, get going. Solarbeam!" Erika said.

A brilliant, white and yellow beam of solar energy burst out of a gigantic sphere of a similar colour in Gloom's mouth, overcharged by the harsh sunlight pouring out of the miniature sun in the sky. Hydrus leapt into the air avoiding most of the Solarbeam, but grimaced when another shock of poison coursed through his bloodstream, and he landed on the ground, doubling over. Gloom, taking advantage of this, blitzed forward, landing a Drain Punch that knocked Hydrus into the air.

Hydrus reached his peak in the air, and suddenly flipped so that he was soaring backwards with his body upright. Ash grinned. "Ice Beam!"

The Golduck screeched before releasing twin arcs of freezing energy, the recoil of which knocked him backwards even further, although he landed perfectly on his webbed feet. Ash was pleased to see the Ice Beam attack hit a startled Gloom, but his triumph was short-lived when the creature kept standing, shrugging off the intense cold coursing in its system.

"Razor Leaf!" Erika ordered.

Hydrus screamed as bladed leaves shredded him seconds after they were released from Gloom. Taking advantage of its pained opponent, Gloom raced forward, releasing an Energy Ball point-blank in Hydrus' face. Ash watched in horror as his Golduck was knocked back several feel, tumbling and rolling before he came to a halt a few metres in front of Ash, struggling to get up.

Erika smirked. "Finish it off, Gloom."

"Hydrus, Ice Beam, quickly!" Ash yelled hastily as he saw Gloom rush forward.

A ball of energy began forming in Hydrus' open mouth, but flickered when Gloom landed a powerful Power-Up Punch that sent his head snapping skywards. The only good outcome was that the half-form Ice Beam exploded right in front on Gloom, knocking Erika's pokémon away as snowflakes and frost formed slowly on its face. Hydrus, on the other hand, was unconscious.

Ash returned Hydrus with a sigh, murmuring words of praise as the Golduck was retracted into his pokéball before clipping it to his belt. Then he looked up, staring straight into the eyes of a smug Erika. "I told you, Ash," she said arrogantly, "I'm not some Sensational Sister over here." She ignored Misty's muted screech of, "Hey!" at the belittlement of her sisters. "I can back up my words, you know, so don't think that you can—"

Erika was cut off suddenly as a strangled gurgle bubbled up Gloom's throat. The grass-type pokémon's squint-eyes were now closed completely, arms hanging loosely at the side as future took over. Right before Gloom fell to the ground, however, Erika recalled it, and Ash was pleased to see the triumphant expression wiped off her face.

Ash couldn't help but snort, making Erika turn red in anger and embarrassment as her previous words were proven wrong. "Sh-Shut up!" she roared. Then she was mollified by a nervous stare from her referee. "R-right," said Erika, taking out another pokéball. "Ketchum, send out your pokémon at the count of three! Three!"

She said it so quickly that Ash barely had time to register the capsule flying from Erika's end of the field. Ash tossed his own pokéball and saw Erika release a Parasect. The pokémon's eyes were white and emotionless, courtesy of the humongous mushroom on its back. Parasect, while frail, were very strong pokémon due to the intensity of their spores, which could paralyze, poison or put an opponent to sleep before they could even think.

The thing about Parasect was that they were one of the few pokémon – like Porygon, Bisharp, etc. – that were not commonly used in the battle trade – not because they were weak, but because they were useful for so many other things. They were primarily used for food production, stuff like that, and only the cream of the crop were used in battle due to their abysmal defences. Not to mention they were dangerous to handle and unappealing, so, for Erika to use one meant that it had to be powerful in its own right.

Ash's response was Delphi. Spreading her colourful wings, the Xatu shrieked her presence and leered directly at Parasect. Her head turned around and she looked at Ash through the corner of her eyes, making Ash hear tones in his mind. It shut off a moment later, but Ash knew that she was trying to access her telepathy.

Ash glanced to the side, curious to see whether his…friends…were enjoying the battle – particularly Scyther. Ash couldn't exactly make out the bug-type's expression, but from what he could garner, Scyther definitely looked interested.

"Begin!" the referee declared suddenly, making Ash focus back at the gym battle.

"Parasect might look weak, but he's a tough bastard!" Erika said with a hint of pride in her voice. "Show them what you've got, Parasect!"

Obeying its trainer's command, Parasect disembogued a mechanical screech before spitting a battery of thick, brown seeds reminiscent to minimized kiwis toward Delphi. The Xatu didn't need her trainers orders to be told to dodge – with flap of her wings, she exploded into the air, easily avoiding the first round of Leech Seeds directed at her.

"Air Slash!" Ash ordered, wanting to get a quick and powerful hit – due to their typing, Parasect were considered one of the frailest pokémon and faced a quadruple weakness to fire- and flying-type moves, and so Ash had no doubt that Erika's pokémon would be felled with a few hits. Delphi weaved through the air at a decently fast speed before soaring high out of Parasect's aiming capacity and slashing her two wings, creating translucent slices of wind energy that curved and raced towards a still Parasect.

Parasect, however, quickly dodged the attacks, scuttling away on its thin legs and out of the way. One of the blades passed through a seed, cutting cleanly through it and splitting it, showcasing its squirming and green innards to the world.

"Aerial Ace!"

Erika frowned. "Attack with Seed Bomb!"

Delphi twirled in the air before slipping into near-teleportation, blitzing towards Parasect with immense speed and force backing her up. Unfortunately, Parasect was one step ahead of her – just before she had cocooned herself in energy, Erika's pokémon had ejected a large, explosive seed straight at Delphi. The seed burst explosively right in the Xatu's face, the force strong enough to knock her out of the sky mid-flight, making her tumble to the ground.

Ash cursed as a stunned Delphi careened to the field, where she landed harshly. "Cross Poison!" said Erika, taking advantage of the break. "Agility and Slash if it's still down. If it attacks, use your spores."

Parasect clicked its claws and crossed them in an x formation before slashing them forward, releasing a sharp projectile of poison that slammed into a slowly rising Delphi and sent her back to the ground once again. The grass-type twitched before scurrying forward with immense speed reminiscent to Delphi's Aerial Ace and raked its claws across Delphi several times, making her grimace in pain.

"Psychic, then into the air!" Ash yelled quickly. There was a burst of psychic energy and Parasect was lifted off its feet before being slammed into the ground. Before Delphi soared into the air, however, there was a burst of spores from Parasect's body that quickly engulfed the two, but a millisecond later the Xatu launched herself into the air, streams of spores being left in her wake.

Ash gritted his teeth. He knew that the spores had entered Delphi's system; her sluggish movements were proof of that. He just hoped that she wasn't hit by sleep-inducing spores, or else she would simply be a sitting duck for Parasect's relentless attacks.

He saw her right wing cramp mid-flight, and was slightly grateful that she at least wasn't poisoned. Still, paralysis would hinder her during her battle and would also hamper her teleportation, and so he had to play his cards right.

"Circle it," Ash called from down below.

"Parasect, use Energy Ball when you can take the shot," ordered Erika calmly, keeping a gimlet eye on Delphi. Parasect tittered, pressing the tip of its claws close together to prepare solar balls at a moment's notice.

When Parasect finally began charging an Energy Ball, Ash tensed like suspension cables. "Aerial Ace, now!"

Delphi immediately banked to the right before disappearing in a jiffy, her presence only highlighted by streaks of pure, white energy coning out from the tip of her beak. With a shrill cry, she swirled around the Energy Ball, slamming hard into the side of Parasect's enormous tochukasō. There was a pained scream from the grass-type, who immediately shook its body and began expelling a cloyingly sweet smell that quickly diffused into the air.

Delphi hawked in irritation as the Sweet Scent quickly attacked her system and senses, making her movements slow and sluggish. Ash stomped in frustration. "Delphi, away!"

"X Scissor!" Erika said quickly.

The pincers-for-arms glowed a sickly shade of green before Parasect crossed them and slashed into Delphi's back with the bug-type move. The Xatu shrieked, then batted Parasect away with her wings before flying into the air. Ash's heart leaped in his throat when he saw Delphi spasm as her muscles cramped, but breathed in relief when she overpowered the pain from the paralysis and flew higher.

Ash watched Erika and Parasect carefully. The creature was tired and badly hurt, and Erika knew it too – there was no denying it. No matter how powerful Parasect was, it was undoubtedly fragile, and the orange exoskeleton was just a flimsy excuse for armour. It may hit hard, but the sad truth was that it could not take hits. The only problem was that Delphi was equally tired, if not less, due to the paralysis, Sweet Scent, and hits from Parasect's pincers. And so Ash had to make the most out of everything.

Ash bit his lip. Erika made the next move. "Parasect, dear, prepare yourself – Swords Dance," she said, and Ash's heart dropped.

"Drill Peck, end this!" he retaliated. He knew that getting close to Parasect was dangerous, but it was a calculated risk that he had to take.

Delphi shrieked arrogantly before shooting skywards, then twisting and plummeting to the ground as she corkscrewed towards Parasect, whose body was tensed as sword like projections began to swirl and spin around it. As he saw Delphi's pointed beak spin on its own, Ash knew that he won this round, but paused when he saw Erika murmur softly.

Parasect abruptly halted the Swords Dance and instead raised its claws, emitting a pulse of shimmering, blue light from the tip of its weapons.

The light quickly formed into a circular shield bigger than Parasect and enough to shield it. Ash further squinted when Delphi's Drill Peck merely pushed Parasect back, delivering only a fraction of the damage Drill Peck actually dished out.

Erika was grinning. "Now, Fury Cutter!"

Ash looked in horror as Parasect began to rip into a startled Delphi. The orange pincers were flying as they stabbed, gouged and pecked the Xatu's flesh. It was when Ash, a few seconds later, saw the claws tipped with drops of blood, that Ash cracked.

"Delphi, flip it over!"

Ash didn't know how she managed it, but he was ecstatic when Delphi fended Parasect off with her wings before grabbing hold of its claws and heave her opponent on the side and unbalance it. Erika gasped at the sudden turn of events, Parasect squirming to right itself. Ash quickly got a brainwave to complete the job and finish off the insect.

"Take it into the air, then hurl it to the field!" he ordered as he remembered a similar tactic he'd used aboard the St Anne.

Delphi chirped in understanding, wincing before initiating the task. Her sharp talons grabbed hold of Parasect's back legs, taking advantage of its frail appendages before soaring into the sky of the gym. Parasect was wriggling and struggling in her grasp, but Delphi was not going to let go.

"Aerial Ace!" Ash finished, ignoring Erika's screams to use Sweet Scent.

With a scream of righteous fury, Delphi spun airborne before letting go of Parasect, the force of which sent the insect swirling as it stormed downward. Delphi jerked as her wings contracted but, determined to land the finishing blow, pushed through the uncomfortableness and sped at her opponent. The Xatu tucked in her wings and slipped into Aerial Ace before landing the attack.

The result was devastating. Delphi absolutely destroyed Parasect with her combination attack. Her beak drove into the underside of the insect, making it shriek in pain as a plate of armour was cracked and torn apart. What was even worse was that Delphi had also hit the tochukasō – her sharp talons tore into the soft, fleshy parasitic mushroom on its back, ripping out a few small chunks and revealing the innards for the world to see. A shaken Erika recalled her Parasect before it hit the ground, which would only have furthered the damage.

Ash was white-faced. He'd never expected such a combination to be so powerful. He knew what Delphi had just done was a cheap rip-off of Sky Drop, which was a powerful move in its own right. "W-Will Parasect be alright?" he asked timidly. He never wanted a pokémon killed during battle – such things, while extremely rare, did happen, and Ash did not want to be part of it.

Erika faked a smile, but nodded. "Yes he will," she answered once a seated attendant of her relieved her off Parasect's pokéball and scurried off, probably to get the pokémon healed. "Having the tochukasō ripped off is not a huge problem – it'll grow back in a week or so, but Parasect will definitely be out of commission for a few weeks longer. You don't need to be worried, Ash."

Ash smiled back, happy at the reassurance. Then he looked at Delphi, who had flown back to his side, fatigued. "Hey, girl," he said. "You were great. Are you still able to go on, or do you need to take a break?"

 _Yes_ was her abrupt response. She looked even tired after that small bit of communication, and he frowned, reprimanding her for wasting energy like that, but recalled her nevertheless.

"So," Erika began. "So you might have defeated two of my pokémon, but your lucks about the run out, Ketchum. Cacturne, let's roll!"

A large, spiked living cactus burst out of the pokéball. It looked like something out of a Western – dark colours, a large, pyramid-shaped 'hat', vivid yellow eyes, and a mouth made of black circles. Its arms and legs, though long, were stubby, although spikes lined the length of them, while also lining the front, like buttons of a shirt. It looked scary, weird, dangerous.

"Chimchar, you're up!"

Chimchar appeared in a scream of bloodlust, pounding his chest with his fists as the flame on his rear burned bright and fierce. The Chimchar grinned at the sight of his opponent and chirped before taking a battle stance, eyeing the Cacturne warily.

The referee slashed her hand down, signalling the continuation of the battle. "Begin!"

"Poison Sting!" said Erika. Cacturne grunted, slashing its arms and making several of the spines jump off its fleshy, waxy arms, leaking potent poison from the tip of the spikes.

Ash clenched his fist, eying the speeding poison barbs with concern. "Burn them with Flamethrower!"

A fireball formed in the base of Chimchar's open mouth before elongating into a jet of flames, burning straight through the toxic barbs and reducing them to cinders, leaving Chimchar unharmed.

Ash smiled. The first exchange between the two fighters has was free of damage, but he didn't know if it would still continue.

"Spikes," the gym leader muttered with a flourish of her kimono.

Ash watched as Cacturne tucked in its arms, then extending them outwards and spinning on its feet, and an immense number of sharp, hard barbs began to spurt out from the slots in its body, landing on the ground and sinking halfway until only the pointed bits were protruding. It was very similar to Toxic Spikes, the only difference was that these weren't toxic. However, it was still going to make it hard for Chimchar to manoeuvre the field and make him feel discomfort and pain whenever he would step on one.

"Take care of the spikes," Ash warned his pokémon slowly. "Get close, then use Brick Break."

Chimchar yipped, crossing over to the other end of the field in a mere five lunges with his powerful, albeit small, legs, making Ash smile. If Chimchar had that much strength right now, he would be a weapon when experienced.

Arms swinging, Chimchar lunged into the air after a feint to the left, leaving Cacturne's right flank open for an attack. The scarecrow pokémon's eyes narrowed by the trickery, but its trainer was prepared. "Spiky Shield!" Erika said tersely.

Ash's eyes widened as Cacturne swiftly raised its right arm, but instead of batting Chimchar away, simply held it there was the shortest of milliseconds. The spikes on its arm began to grow and sprout exponentially, until forming a thick, netted shield of green spines, blunt and short ridges jutting outward. The shield absorbed the staggering force behind the Brick Break like it was nothing.

The next second the ridges on the outside of the barrier extended out and slammed collectively into Chimchar, knocking the wind out of the simian and sending him airborne. But the chimp spun with the momentum of his flight and quickly breathing a cone of fire, making Cacturne grimace as its Spiky Shield was scorched off. Chimchar, growling, landed perfectly on his feet before lunging at Cacturne once again.

"Brick Break, again!" Ash called out. "Flamethrower if it uses Spiky Shield."

Chimchar didn't bother acknowledging the order, so focused was he on his opponent, who had extended its prickly arms in wait. Chimchar began darting around Cacturne, knowing that his speed would play an important role in the defeat of his slower opponent. Then, when Chimchar's clever eyes finally saw an opening, he thrust his hand out in a swinging motion as orange energy engulfed it. Cacturne, however, was equally ready for the attack and intercepted the attack with a shield created by a nexus of hard spines.

"Now, Cacturne!" Erika exclaimed triumphantly the moment Chimchar's chop impacted the shield.

The spikes on the shield erupted outwards, growing to sizes and sharpness enough to skewer a human being, but Chimchar evaded it by performing a manoeuvre that surprised Ash, Erika and Cacturne. The little monkey leapt into the air until the large spike shot just below his legs, giving him the perfect platform to land on. With a push of his legs, Chimchar jumped straight at Cacturne's head, making it gasp as he landed on its head. Quick as a viper Chimchar delivered a backhanded Brick Break to Cacturne's neck, making the grass-type groan in pain as the super-effective attack hit it. Then Chimchar jumped away by pushing against Cacturne, but not before breathing a stream of flames that burnt his opponent's back.

"That was great, Chimchar!" Ash praised, pumping his fist. Chimchar chirped back, cracking his neck before focusing on Cacturne once again.

Erika glared. "Fine!" she snapped. "Frenzy Spikes!"

Ash frowned. What was she trying to do—

His answer came in the form of a low rumbling as Cacturne smashed its arms into the ground. Everyone except for Erika was puzzled as there was nothing but silence for several seconds. Was—

All of a sudden, the half-submerged spikes in the ground erupted into the air like thin, sharp vines, wriggling and writhing as Cacturne slowly stood. Ash was horrified by the technique she was using – Erika had somehow trained her Cacturne into manipulating its Spikes attack in a manner similar to Spiky Shield. "Chimchar, burn them!"

Cacturne slashed its hands down, making the spikes do the sake. Chimchar eagerly began to release hot streams of fire, razing the first wave of sharp root like projectiles that headed towards him with the intent to hurt. He managed to burn them to a crisp, leaving them roasted and lifeless, but the numbers proved too much, and Ash could only watch in horror as they began to slam piercingly into his pokémon.

There were shrill screams from Chimchar as the vines repeatedly jabbed him, imitating the way Cacturne ruthlessly punched in Chimchar's direction. It was only when several seconds passed that Cacturne's arms went limp with exhaustion and so did the vines, falling to the ground in a messy heap.

Ash looked at his pokémon, who was utterly exhausted. Chimchar was struggling to push himself up. "Don't push yourself!" he yelled. He knew that he was close to throwing in the towel, but it was clear that Chimchar was close to defeat. Why let his friend hurt even more when he couldn't fight fate?

But Chimchar didn't. Instead, the little monkey pushed himself up with sudden effortlessness, glaring defiantly at Erika and Cacturne. He was bruised and hurt all over, but he was stubborn in the face of his opponents. Cuts marred his body, but his eyes were fiery with the burning determination to fight.

Ash blinked. "Chimchar, are you sure?" he asked slowly.

Chimchar simply nodded, clenching his jaw.

"Very well," Erika said, sighing. "Cacturne, Magical Leaf."

"Raze them!"

A volley of glowing leaves flew in Chimchar's direction from somewhere on Cacturne's back, the traces of energy in the leaves honing in on the fire-type. With practiced ease, Chimchar reduced the leaves to fine ashes with a somewhat weaker Flamethrower, but it had the same effect. With a battle cry, Chimchar twisted forward and wreathed himself in flames, slipping into a Flame Wheel the second the last of the leaves were obliterated.

"Energy Ball!" Erika said. Cacturne quickly formed a green orb and blasted Chimchar with it, knocking the pokémon off track, but Chimchar quickly got back up with the same determination and charged his opponent in the same manner. Cacturne attempted to smack Chimchar away with a Needle Arm, but Ash's pokémon quickly pushed himself up with his limbs at the last second, causing him to soar at a forty-five degree angle and slam straight into Cacturne's face.

"Yeah!" Ash yelled. "Brick Break!" A quick karate chop crashed into Cacturne's jaw, making it stumble to the side. "Flame Wheel, then Flamethrower!" Spinning flames rolled into Cacturne's spiky midsection, scorching off the fleshy epidermis and ripping off a bit of its skin. A frustrated Cacturne clawed at Chimchar, but Chimchar simply burnt that hand too with a Flamethrower.

"Pin Missile!" Erika snapped in annoyance. Deeming it merely an irritant, Chimchar didn't bother to dodge them and waste further energy, energy that would need to be conserved for him to win the match. The small, thin needles plugged into Chimchar's side, but the chimp clawed them out once he landed on the grass.

Then suddenly, Chimchar convulsed in pain as he felt a jolt of toxicity pass through his body, which flickered a violent purple for a moment. Ash cursed himself as he realised that Chimchar was poisoned. But how…?

He almost slapped himself for not getting her tactic sooner. Of _course_. Erika had done something similar to Ash's Cotton Stun – but instead of discharging electricity into cotton balls, Erika had secretly tasked her Cacturne with embedding the Pin Missiles with poison. Ash felt stupid for not figuring it out the moment she used such an unnoticeable attack, since he used a very similar tactic.

"Chimchar, we've got to finish this fast," he warned. The simian nodded, shaking his head to focus on his opponent and clear his gradually blurring vision. "Flame Wheel!"

"Poison Sting," Erika said, wanting to poison Chimchar even further. Poisonous barbs exploded from Cacturne's body, spinning towards Chimchar, who simply wheeled out of the way of the toxic pricks, and continued making his way towards the grass-type. "Try Needle Arm."

The thorns on Cacturne's arms enlarged like a barbed mace, before the scarecrow pokémon swung its arms and struck an impeding Chimchar, the knockback blowing both pokémon back. Cacturne, however, simply jumped back to its feet, whereas Chimchar hit the ground, bounced into the air, then hit the ground spread-eagled. His limbs were trembling for the effort once again, until another bout of poison washed over him and he fell to the ground.

"I believe that's it, Ash," Erika said. Her Cacturne's pokéball was already in her arm, and she was watching Ash, who was in turn looking at his pokémon trembling to stand back up.

Ash's teeth were grinding against each other. He'd lost…it was all over. He was disbelieving, furious even, and there was a touch of sadness in his expression. He'd expected to win, but the realisation that his pokémon hadn't been strong enough really angered him.

He sighed reluctantly and began to detach Chimchar's pokéball from his belt. "It's alright, buddy," he said, trying to calm his pokémon into defeat. "You don't need to keep fighting."

But Chimchar was unrelenting. He was furious at Cacturne, furious at himself for getting beat so easily, while his opponent looked much better off. With a yowl of rage, the little fire-type let go of his anger, his determination, and the knot of tension in his stomach that had been there was the past few days loosened, and he was suddenly flooded with power.

Ash gasped in disbelief as Chimchar was suddenly bathed in light. Energy coalesced around him, and he shifted. Chimchar's body doubled in height, replacing his previously diminutive frame with a comparatively taller figure. His arms grew longer and thicker, gaining a ton of muscle, and so did his legs. His hands no longer looked like a child's; instead, they were made for hurting and delivering powerful blows. The orange fur turned a shade darker, a mask of blue fur appeared around his face, and there was a small patch of crimson hair right above his simian nose. Yellow bands appeared around the elbow joints of the evolving pokémon, and a long tail suddenly grew out of his rear, replacing the short stub he had before.

There was an explosion of light, revealing Monferno instead of Chimchar. At first, Ash was elated. Happy. Giddy with his pokémon's evolution. But a second glance made him frown in slight worry. The pokémon did not look happy on evolving. While he had expected a hint of ferocity, this was ridiculous. Monferno was practically _made_ of rage. The tail flame, which he'd expected to be burning normally like a Charmeleon's, had grown to explosive heights, like a pillar of fire. Instead or red flames, it was white hot and blue, and Ash could feel the heat from more than ten feet away. And his face…Monferno's eyes were bulging with anger, and maroon with ferocity. A pale crimson aura had surrounded the pokémon, and the very area around Monferno made the air shimmer with heat.

Ash was trembling. His first instinct told him that it was Blaze, Chimchar's natural ability, but this was worse. It was a bastardized version of it, ten times more raw and unrefined. Monferno was shaking, his breathing heavy and laboured.

He gulped. "Monferno—"

He flinched away when Monferno _screamed_ at infernal pitches, making Ash and everyone else clamp their hands over their ears. Then, without warning, Monferno exploded forwards with surprising speed, slamming into a shocked Cacturne with a powerful Brick Break to the gut. Without even waiting for the grass-type to double over, Monferno jumped high, smacking his opponent in the face with his tail flame before beginning to slash and scratch furiously at Cacturne, who was swiping his arms back in an effort to throw the pokémon off. Monferno was no longer little more that an irritation; he had evolved into an absolute beast.

Ash was absolutely shocked. None of his pokémon had ever been sorted aggressive like that, and certainly not Monferno. In his previous stage, the little pokémon had been a cheerful, lively creature, certainly aggressive in battle, but which pokémon wasn't? This was the absolute last thing he'd expected from any of his pokémon. Right now, Monferno seemed almost…uncontrollable.

"Cacturne, Spiky Shield!" Erika said when a particularly large Flame Wheel steamrolled into her pokémon. Cacturne grunted and formed one right away, and slammed the bursting spikes into Monferno so hard that they drew blood. That only seemed to infuriate the monkey further as he rolled back onto his feet.

Cacturne drove his spiky fist straight down at Monferno's midsection, but the fire-type rolled out of the way, not even registering a random thorn that scratched his flank. With a fierce yowl, Monferno moved his fist in an upward swing, smashing the side of his rigid palm into the arm of Cacturne, who groaned in pain and staggered back. Monferno, as ruthlessly as he could, jumped straight into Cacturne's line of vision and opened his maw.

An _enormous_ cone of fire exploded point-blank in Cacturne's face, making the pokémon give the equivalent of a scream as the flames engulfed its flammable body. Monferno continued to savagely bathe Cacturne in flames for one, two, five, then ten seconds, until the roars from Cacturne shut off and it was clear that it could no longer go on.

But Monferno still didn't stop, for some unknown reason. "Call off your pokémon, Ash!" Erika screamed angrily, fumbling for the button on her pokéball.

Ash himself was getting scared at the raw, unbridled anger pouring out of his friend. "Monferno, stop!" he ordered.

The flames trickled to a stop, but then Monferno's head snapped up. He screamed as he trashed his tail on the ground, glaring at Ash with surprising anger before rushing at his trainer, not even caring as he trampled over a badly burnt Cacturne in the process.

Scared at his advancing pokémon, Ash recoiled before quickly aiming his pokéball in Monferno's direction. There was a scream of defiance as the beam triggered its transformation into energy before being sucked back into the pokéball.

The referee looked a bit shaken, but she nevertheless raised the hand in Ash's direction. "Cacturne is unable the battle," she announced. "As all of Leader Erika's pokémon are incapacitated, the challenger wins!"

Ash's sudden victory was muted by the recent events that had just occurred. He felt a surge of triumph when he heard the referee, but it had been replaced by a stab of worry and fear. During those final moments, Ash had barely recognized his pokémon. Monferno had become a shell of itself during its Blaze-induced rage, and had attacked Cacturne not with the intent to knock out, but to kill. The fact that he had turned on Ash made the boy anxious even more.

He shook himself out of his reverie when he heard footsteps getting louder, and looked up to see Erika closing in on him. She wasn't smiling, but neither did she seem angry. She was barely frowning, a little curious, a little worry thrown in there. Still, she sounded a bit happy as she handed him over a flower-shaped badge with multi-coloured petals. "Congratulations, Ash," she said. "As a sign of your victory against the Celadon Gym, here is the Rainbow Badge."

"Thank you." He accepted did calmly and pocketed it as if it was just another trinket.

"Is your Ch— sorry, your Monferno always like that under the effects of Blaze?" she asked anxiously.

Ash shook his head. "This is the first time this has happened," he confided. It was true. But now that he thought about it… "Actually," he added, "this is the first time Monferno has actually slipped into Blaze. I've never actually seen it happen before. He's always won prior, or lost."

Erika's frown deepened. "That might be a problem…" She looked at him pointedly. "What if he turns on you if he _does_ get into Blaze?"

Ash stepped back on reflex and his hand immediately went to his pokéball. "He's not a threat," he protested, not wanting to hand Monferno over to the officials. "I'll be very careful. You won't—"

"Woah, relax," she said, holding her hands up. "I wasn't planning on taking him from you. I was just wondering if your Monferno has some complexities, or needs psychological evaluation. Now that I think of it, that would be for the best."

"What?"

"You could have your pokémon evaluated at the Pokécenter, you know," she informed. "You have to pay, however – just a fee of five hundred and fifty pokédollars. It's not an order, but I strongly suggest you do it. You might be able to prevent such things from happening in the future."

Ash looked down. It sounded like a great idea, according to him. "I'll give it a shot," he told her. Then he smiled. "That was one heck of a battle, anyway."

She grinned back. "It was, wasn't it?" she said smugly. "Mind you, if I was actually not holding back, your team would've been decimated. I just decided to go easy because I knew you," she teased.

Ash smirked. "Yeah, right. We all know that anyone can win in the Celadon Gym," he jeered.

Erika glowered. "Jerk," she groused. "Tell you what, come back here after you've collected all eight badges. Six-on-six, no holding back. I'll even help you out by using on three pokémon out of my standard team. Then we'll see how strong you really are."

"It's a date," he told her.

"Don't forget you're going to battle me too, Ash," Misty said as she and the rest – Dawn, Zoey and Scyther, who buzzed behind them – walked over to him and Erika. "But that was great, Ash. Did she pose a bigger challenge than I did?"

"There's no right answer to that," he protested, and Dawn and Zoey laughed. Misty punched him in the arm, albeit playfully.

"So," Zoey began, "are we carrying that trade or what?"

Ash groaned. Dawn looked put out, too, everyone looked at them.

"So you two are planning to trade pokémon, huh?" Erika asked. "Which ones?"

"A Clefairy and a Scyther," Zoey piped up. Erika whistled appreciatively.

"Both of them are rare," she commented. "So? Are you going to trade your pokémon?"

"…I don't know," Ash mumbled. He felt annoyed at Zoey for bringing it up, sure that if they had just waited for a few more moments it would have been forgotten. They would've gone their separate ways, but _no_. "I'm really sceptical, though. Plus, I still don't know if Luna is absolutely sure about going to Dawn…"

"It's the same with me," Dawn chimed in. "I'd love to have Cle— sorry, Luna on my team, but I don't know how much of an interest she has in me. I would say the same about Scyther, but he does seem to want to go with you, from what I saw during your match…"

Ash looked at the large mantis by Dawn's side. It was looking at him intently – smirking, even – and its eyes held a glint of determination, of defiance, as if challenging him to take it under his wing. It was amusing to see the pokémon staring at him so much, unable to peel its eyes off the boy.

Ash himself felt an odd connection with the pokémon. It was just something about Scyther that made it click, and there was a tingle in the pit of his stomach, a thrum within his bones. It was as if he instantly knew that the pokémon had meant to be with him. It was this inexplicable feeling that made part of Ash want to accept Scyther in his team.

"Scyther?" Dawn asked, looking nervously at her pokémon. "Do you think you want to go on a journey with Ash?"

The Scyther looked him up and down for a moment, arms crossed and eyes narrowed as he examined Ash like he was a particularly juicy piece of meat. He almost missed the response – a short, jerky, curt nod, followed with a grunt of confirmation when Dawn posed her question again.

Dawn shrugged. "Well, Scyther seems ready to go with you," she told him. "I mean, he did pretty much watch you the whole time during the match. What about Luna?"

"Why don't you send her out, Ash?" Misty suggested. Ash scowled at being pressured, ignoring Misty's shit-eating grin when he glared at her, but nevertheless sent out his beloved pokémon out of her pokéball.

As soon as the Clefairy popped out, Erika squealed and bent low until she was eye-level with the pokémon, reduced from a gym leader to a cooing mess. "Aww! She's so cute!" she gushed, shaking her hands. Luna, already being used to such reactions, just looked at the gym leader in puzzlement.

Ash immediately felt a pang of hurt when the first person Luna looked at was not him, but Dawn. "Hey, Luna," Ash said in false cheery. "We were just talking about something…Uh…"

"Spit it out," Misty muttered.

"Shut up, Waterflower," Ash snapped. "Uh, anyway…We were just talking about you…Do you think you want to be with Dawn?"

Luna looked at him in astonishment. He was confused to see her hesitating, worried, and…scared? Where had that come from?

Ash sighed. "Be honest, Luna. I promise I won't get mad."

The Clefairy still looked uncertain. She glanced from Ash to Dawn, with everyone else watching eagerly.

Then, as slowly as possible, she nodded.

Ash's temper flared for a split-second before he managed to suppress his impeding outburst. He'd promised Luna that he wouldn't get mad, and he didn't need to prove himself wrong. Dawn was looking at him in nervousness, but Ash's face betrayed no emotions except for resignation. Inside, however, he felt like someone had punched him in the gut, and felt a knot of pain and hurt begin to form in his chest.

"Are you sure, Luna? I w-won't hold it against you," he reassured when she looked disbelievingly. The Clefairy looked at Ash with a hopeful expression, and that was all that he needed for confirmation.

"Okay!" Zoey squealed, the only one not picking up on Ash's and Dawn's uneasiness. "Are we doing this right now?"

XxXxX

"Okay Luna, I'm returning you," he told the Clefairy, who nodded as he tapped the button on his pokéball.

They were back at the Pokécenter where, upon asking for directions, a nurse had pointed them towards the escalator that lead to the second floor, which contained multiple trading machines. They were sleek, orange and grey devices as tall as Ash and as wide as his Snorlax. A large screen was above the main part of the machine, which consisted of two pokéball holders on either side and a button next to them.

Ash vaguely noticed a couple of other trade machines being occupied, but he was too busy with his own.

Ash was feeling highly anxious as he and Dawn walked to either side of the trading machine. Zoey, Misty and Erika were watching silently, and Ash wished that they weren't there right now. Heck, he wished he hadn't met the coordinators in the first place. It was as if fate loved to mess with his life and it annoyed him to no end.

Ash gulped. He had asked Luna if she wanted to reconsider her decision – almost pleaded – but she seemed to want to go with Dawn no matter what. Dawn had tried to do the same with Scyther, but it didn't sound like she meant it, probably because Scyther hadn't liked her very much to begin with.

Dawn and Ash placed the pokéballs in their required slots. They looked in each others eyes, as if challenging each other to back down, but when neither of them did they looked away. Dawn pressed the button next to her pokéball holder, locking hers into place. Now all that they had to do was press the one on Ash's side, and the trade would begin.

Ash looked at the small, red protrusion, almost trembling. He knew he could walk away now. Part of him told him that he didn't care about this, but the other part knew better. He remembered once, aboard the St Anne, declaring that be would never trade his pokémon for anything, but here he was. How cruelly amusing.

He almost took back the pokéball then and there, but decided against it. Luna had made her decision. He couldn't force her into staying with him. That would be just as barbaric as that Damien guy he'd met before.

The second he pressed the button, he almost felt instant regret.

Ash could only wait as the machine whirred and made a dozen other noises that machines normally did. The screen lit up with the silhouettes of a Scyther and a Clefairy and the two pokéballs glowed. On the screen, the pixilated images began moving in opposite directions, signifying the energy transfers, until the Scyther was on Ash's side and the Clefairy on Dawn's.

Zoey clapped. Misty said, "Well, that was anticlimactic."

Dawn grabbed her pokéball with a shaking hand and tapped the release. Soon enough, Ash's previously owned Clefairy shot out, blinking her eyes as she registered to her surroundings. She looked up, expecting to see Ash, and instead saw Dawn, looking down hesitantly.

"H-Hi, Luna," she said meekly. Luna smiled back, humming pleasantly, before turning to Ash.

Ash tried for a smile. "So," he said. "This is it, Luna."

She looked sad, despite her wishes coming true.

"Hey!" Ash's grin wavered. "Don't worry. You'll be happy with Dawn, she's a great person."

Luna hummed dejectedly. When she waddled up to Ash and hugged his leg, he couldn't help but tear up.

"I'll miss you too, Luna," he said softly. She looked and murmured something similar in her tongue. Ash petted her, then looked at Dawn, nodding curtly. "Take care of her."

"I will," Dawn replied, smiling. "I'll keep in touch and update you once in a while."

"Same here," he replied. They'd exchanged pokégear numbers earlier, promising to keep in touch even if they would've backed out of the trade.

On instinct, Ash released his own pokémon and, trying not to choke up briefed them about the situation. Needless to say, they were shocked, especially Screecher, who knew her so little. Monferno was currently with Nurse Joy undergoing treatment due to his sudden evolution and his general health, along with Delphi and Hydrus. The only ones who were really there were Screecher, Saur and Zeus.

It was a tearful goodbye. Screecher had gone quiet, floating up to Luna and mumbling something while Zeus walked up with Saur, their heads held high. Saur grunted and butted his head into Luna's side affectionately, while Zeus pompously held out his hand, imitating a handshake. Luna had tentatively accepted it, and was mildly surprised when the Flaaffy didn't shock her.

As happy he was for Luna, Ash couldn't help but feel that the empty part in him wouldn't be replaced for a long time.

XxXxX

 **Trainer : Ash Ketchum**

 **Pokémon in Possession :**

 **Saur** – Ivysaur

 **Delphi** – Xatu

 **Zeus** – Flaaffy

 **Hydrus** – Golduck

 **Monferno**

 **Snorlax**

 **Screecher** – Misdreavus

 **Scyther**

 **Previously Owned : Luna **– Clefairy; **Status** : w/ **Dawn Berlitz**

XxXxX

 **Before people start jumping at my throat, I'll have you know that this was planned from the beginning of the rewrite. While it is a bit sad, I have to say that Luna will be much better off under Dawn's care.**

 ** _R.I.P. Luna: 2017 – 2018_**

 **For those of you who are curious, yes, Monferno is the same Chimchar from the anime. Blaze will be a problem until there will be a badass scene of bonding and ass-kicking where our little monkey will control hone Blaze and turn it into a weapon.**

 **Enter Scyther! Also, enter Dawn and Zoey and Kenny! For those who might see some parts as me bashing Kenny, know that this is 100% true. I hate the little bastard for some unknown reason, pardon my French. The good news is that he will never make another cameo ever again…well, maybe one.**

 **Yes, Luna and Dawn will make another appearance in this series. I guess you'll have to keep reading to find out when!**

 **(I am literally begging for views.)**

 **For those of you who were paying extra attention, I'll have you know that there is an Easter egg pertaining to Luna's trade, in there, hidden in the first half of the chapter. If you found it, let me know! It's always fun to leave little clues in the and let readers find them for themselves.**

 **I was actually going to make Ash lose the battle even after Chimchar evolved, but I finally decided not to include that part in the story. Writing another gym battle would be a huge pain, and it doesn't really affect the plot that much. Monferno evolving and absolutely thrashing Cacturne was enough as it is.**

 **Chapter eleven, or rather, chapter ten part two, will come out later during this month. Thank you, everyone who followed, favourite'd or reviewed since I last updated. It's really fun to write this series and know your thoughts on my writing style. I hope I improve, so that a publishing company may actually take me seriously when I write a book.**

 **Thanks for reading. Don't forget to tell me your thoughts on this chapter, and I'll see you guys next time. Goodbye!**


	11. Rocket Raid

**This chapter was a bitch. Some parts of it were so painful to write that I almost wanted to call it a day. It's not my best work. I don't expect you guys to enjoy it either.**

 **Not a great way to celebrate one year of this story.**

XxXxX

 _Chapter Eleven: Rocket Raid_

Dawn left immediately the next morning. That had given enough time for Ash to truly let go of Luna, who, despite being happy with her new trainer, felt sad for leaving Ash after so long. He knew that it was for the best, which was why it made it so hard for Ash to trade her; knowing that a pokémon of his would do better under the care of another really hit home.

Still, Ash and Dawn had promised to keep in touch, and update them on their new pokémon. Before Dawn left, however, Ash had a small parting gift for Luna.

"Here," he told Dawn, handing a shard of the moonstone he'd acquired in Mt Moon. Misty had thankfully told allowed her Kingler to slice up the shard, letting Ash give one half of his own moonstone to Dawn.

Luna gasped and her eyes lit up at the sight of the one of a kind moonstone in Ash's hand, remembering it from her colony. Dawn looked at him in puzzlement. "It's a moonstone, for Luna. I'd…kept it for her when she would be ready to evolve, but since she's going with you…I figured she might want this."

Luna squealed and hugged his leg again, making Ash laugh. Dawn thanked him and, once they said their goodbyes, left alongside Kenny and Zoey.

When they were finally out of sight, Ash sagged. Misty looked at him in pity. "I know it's hard," she said, then continued pompously, "but such is the life of a trainer. We must suffer hardship after hardship—"

"Shut up."

XxXxX

The next stop for Ash was the Pokécenter, from where he needed to collect his fully healed pokémon. There was short line in front of them, Ash tapping his foot impatiently, before finally he reached the front desk and asked for his pokémon.

"Here you go," Nurse Joy told him, handing over the six pokéballs – making Ash remember the sole ball he had in storage. "They're all fit and ready. Xatu may be tender for a day or two, but she's good for training."

"Thank you." Ash grabbed the bunch of them and clipped it to his pokébelt. "And about Monferno?"

Joy nodded, growing serious. "Well, your Monferno's situation _is_ complicated, but not uncommon. During our analysis, we found out that it was previously wild, not born in captivity. You must know that pokémon in the wild face danger all the time, what with scavenging for food, asserting dominance, whatnot."

"Okay…"

"Your Monferno seems to have had a traumatic experience in the wild – you said that he went crazy during Blaze, right?" When he nodded, she continued. "From what we learnt, we can say that Monferno, in an attempt to survive, blocked those memories until they seemed to have been forgotten. The only problem is that whenever it slips into Blaze, the memories resurface and, believing that its memories as happening in real-time, looses all inhibitions."

"Oh." Ash didn't know that his pokémon had had such a dodgy past. He'd always thought that Monferno had either been sponsored by a breeder, or had been bought from said breeder. "So…Will this cause any problems?"

She shook her head. "As of now, no. He'll be perfectly normal and his usual self most of the time. But as you said that this happened under certain circumstances, it's safe to assume that this…phenomenon will only occur during Blaze. He won't be seen as a threat, but I must warn you to be careful around him, or keep his pokéball at the ready during battles. Don't fret – practice will make your Monferno able to keep his rage under control, but please be careful. We get enough trainer injuries as it is."

"Alright," he told her, nodding. It didn't sound too hard – all he had to do was help Monferno get over it, right? It wasn't like he had to move mountains in order to do so. "Is that all?"

Nurse Joy smiled. "Yes. Take care, and don't hesitate to return if you have further queries!"

Ash nodded. He stepped aside to let Misty get her own pokémon, and once she did, exited the Pokécenter along with her.

"Where to now?" Misty asked him.

Ash rolled Monferno's pokéball in his hand. "I was thinking of breaking in the newest member of our team. Do you want to tag along?"

Misty wrinkled her nose in distaste. "Nuh-uh. I'm not going anywhere near the bug, no sir. You can welcome him without me, Ketchum."

XxXxX

Ash quickly found himself in a clearing right on the outskirts of Celadon City. He grabbed six of his pokéballs and released all pokémon except for Scyther.

His team cried out eagerly as soon as they were let out and, once they saw him, swarmed the boy. Ash laughed as he was nearly overrun by his team, but felt a pang of sadness wash over him when he remembered that Luna was no longer with him. He pushed that away, however.

"Hey guys!" he said eagerly. "Can you take a step back? I've got…well, you can say I've got a lot of news to tell you."

His team nodded and walked back, forming a small semicircle in front of him. They looked up at him questioningly and, clearing his throat, he told them.

"First of all, you guys were amazing yesterday." Everyone looked to Delphi, Hydrus and Monferno, who smiled and puffed out their chests importantly. "We won the Rainbow Badge, and it couldn't have happened without you guys. Second, congratulations on evolving, Monferno!" he added, and the rest of the team cheered with him as Monferno blushed. "We've been waiting for a long time, and now we can finally train seriously."

Monferno pounded his chest and growled happily, basking in all the warmth and attention. Ash grinned back, but couldn't help but remember how different the monkey had been yesterday during the gym battle.

"Thirdly, you must be wondering why Luna isn't here with us," at that, Hydrus and Monferno perked up and began looking around for the Clefairy. "She, uh…Remember that Dawn girl from yesterday? Well, I, uh, traded Luna to her because she wanted to pursue coordinating instead of battling. So, yeah, guys. She's with another trainer now. We might meet her sometime, but I don't know when."

Most of his friends had already known about this yesterday, but it still didn't stop them from looking sadly at the ground. Monferno, even though he hadn't spent much time with the Clefairy, looked equally saddened, and mumbled softly. The same couldn't be said for the other two.

Hydrus' face had turned crestfallen in the beginning, but then his expression hardened within a second. The Golduck's posture straightened and Ash heard an angry growl bubble in the back of his throat. Then, without warning, Hydrus crossed his arms and turned away, his back facing Ash as the water-type's tail hit the ground aggressively. Maybe he was angry at Luna for leaving Ash?

Delphi hardly looked bothered, only a twinge of longing flashing in her eyes. Ash figured that the lack of sadness might've been because she must've read his mind and learnt of this previously. Ash shrugged; she didn't show much emotion anyway, so it didn't really matter.

"Okay…" Ash shook his head. "Anyway, we've got a new friend with us – a Scyther. Be nice to him, everyone. I'm releasing him now."

The group of pokémon, except for Hydrus, nodded. Ash unclipped one of the remaining two pokéballs on his belt and aimed it straight in front of him before tapping the release button on it.

There was a flash of light before Scyther popped out of the pokéball. The mantis screeched softly and swung its arms, as if stretching its limbs after a long sleep. Scyther looked around, taking in its sights, including the team, who did their best to seem non-threatening.

"Hey there, Scyther," he greeted, watching the bladed pokémon carefully. Before leaving, Dawn had told him that Scyther would do "something weird" before recognising him as his trainer, so he was waiting for it.

When the pokémon didn't answer, he continued. "Well, as you know, Dawn is no longer your trainer," he told Scyther. Scyther snorted, as if saying, _Good riddance!_

"Okay. Anyway, I'm Ash – well, you remember me from yesterday. I'm your trainer now," he informed. Bug-type pokémon weren't that hard to train. They had simple minds and followed orders very easily, but a few bug-types, like Scyther, Heracross, Escavalier, to name a few, had far more complex minds and could think for themselves far more than other of their type.

Scyther looked at him for a moment. Ash looked back, wondering what it was up to—

Scyther spat.

Ash recoiled on reflex, but he had no way to stop the green, salivary projectile heading his way. He shrieked when it splattered against his cheek, disgusted by the thick, wet feel of it on his skin. He was so close to puking, but he held it in and looked at Hydrus for help.

"Wash it off, please!" he begged. Hydrus nodded, blasting him with a low-powered Water Gun. It still hurt like hell, but it did the job, although it also drenched his left side.

"No, don't attack him!" Ash ordered when he saw Saur growling at Scyther, who looked puzzled. He glared at Scyther. "Why did you do that?!" he demanded.

Scyther simply shrugged. Then it clicked. Maybe this was what Dawn had deemed weird. It certainly was, but maybe she should've also told him that it would've been disgusting.

"Was that necessary?" he snapped. When Scyther nodded, he sighed. Whatever. Welcome to the team, blah, blah." His mood had been killed.

Ash introduced him to the rest of the team, who were still a little wary of Scyther after his little event. Thankfully, the bug-type spat on none of them. Screecher immediately got along with Scyther, and so did the rest, except for Hydrus, who simply glared at the mantis.

Ash noticed this, but decided to diffuse it only when it became prominent. For now, he could do nothing. "Okay, Scyther," Ash said. "I'm going to scan you now, okay? Stay still."

He aimed the lens at the stationary pokémon and waited until the information on his pokédex loaded.

 _Scyther, the mantis pokémon. Scyther is blindingly fast. Its blazing speed enhances the effectiveness of the twin scythes on its forearms. This pokémon's scythes are so effective, they can cut through thick logs in one wicked stroke._

 _This Scyther is male and knows the moves: Quick Attack, Vacuum Wave, Night Slash, Focus Energy, Agility, Wing Attack, Fury Cutter, Slash, Razor Wind, and Double Team. Its ability is Steadfast, which gives it a boost in speed whenever this pokémon flinches._

Ash nodded thoughtfully and pocketed the pokédex. Scyther was a speedster, and had primarily attacking moves, with only Double Team and Agility as moves that could aid him otherwise. He would be a great asset in battle.

Ash looked at Scyther curiously. "Do you want a nickname?"

Scyther nodded immediately, to Ash's surprise. Maybe Scyther had always wanted one, but it was just that the mantis pokémon wanted an identity of his own in this team. There were many Scyther, but this one wanted to stand out from the rest and showcase his difference to the world.

It wasn't hard to find a nickname for Scyther. While he refused names such as Slash and Shredder, the bug-type finally settled on the name of Kratos. It was a nice, fitting name for the Scyther, and it was when that word was uttered that the newest member of Ash's team was re-christened.

"Welcome to the team, Kratos," Ash said. The Scyther simply nodded politely in response.

There was one more thing that he wanted to do before beginning their training anew. There was still the matter of the rogue Snorlax, who Ash had captured way back on the mountains. While Ash and his team were barely even half the level of the gluttonous behemoth, he was sure that they had finally grown a tad bit stronger than it. He was confident that his team could handle it, but was still a bit uneasy to let it out.

In the end, he decided to give it a shot. If Snorlax went on a rampage, he could easily return it before things got out of hand. First, however, he decided to check its data on his pokédex to find out all its moves and be prepared for any sort of attack.

 _Snorlax, the sleeping pokémon. Its stomach is said to be incomparably strong. It is such a docile pokémon that there are children who use its expansive belly as a place to play._

Ash snorted then and there. No way was _this_ Snorlax docile.

 _This pokémon is male and knows the moves: Defence Curl, Lick, Hyper Beam, Giga Impact, Yawn, Body Slam, Rollout, Rest, Sleep Talk, Mega Punch and Heavy Slam. Its ability is Thick Fat, which gives it an increased resistance to fire- and ice-type moves._

Ash quickly called his pokémon close and briefed them on the situation on hand. Most of their faces drew serious, while Screecher and Scyther— no, Kratos, looked a bit puzzled. Ash decided to tell them about the incident that had resulted in its capture later; there were more pressing matters on hand.

"Don't attack it, but don't keep your guard down either," he instructed them. "If it makes the move, go after it. Saur, try to put it to sleep, and Zeus, paralyse it. Delphi and Hydrus, keep it locked in place with Disable and Psychic. The rest of you, if it gets close, give it hell. Got it?"

His pokémon nodded in understanding. Ash's Ivysaur eyed the ultra-ball in disdain, not wanting to meet the pokémon that had almost killed his trainer.

Ash hurled the ultra-ball high into the air, letting Snorlax loose from about the same distance as the opposite end of a battlefield.

The large normal-type groaned softly as it was released from its confines, glad to be out in the open after such a long slumber. It flexed its arms, scratching at the dirt and mud as it tried to recognize its surroundings. Its triangular ears twitched, and it slowly stood up as it tried to recollect the last thing it could remember.

Its memories were hazy. It remembered being in a dusky, gloomy chamber, and running around in open territories before. Flashes of its brawl with a purple creature filled its vision, but apart from that, nothing stood out.

Except for one thing – the human standing at the other end of the clearing, watching him warily.

Ash calmed himself, his hand over Snorlax's pokéball. He was going to use it as a last resort, as beating Snorlax into submission if it would get angry would be enough to show the pokémon who was in charge. "Hey, Snorlax," Ash said hesitantly. "I'm Ash. How are you?"

That voice made Snorlax stiffen. Even though it wasn't shrieking and yelling, the behemoth could easily place where it'd heard it before. This was the same human who'd humiliated it by first tossing it off a cliff, and then capturing it and essentially making it his slave.

Snorlax's nostrils flared, and its lips curled in a snarl. Ash gulped.

"Snorlax, wait—" Ash began.

Snorlax lunged.

Ash's team, however, knowing that this would be a possibility, immediately jumped into action. Zeus conjured a bunch of copies to distract it while Saur wrapped his vines around the Snorlax's neck and wrists and ankles, doing his best to prevent it from rushing at Ash. A thick brown seen burst from the Ivysaur's pink bud, and landed on Snorlax's shoulder, cracking to let its parasitic tendrils seep into Snorlax's flesh and leech off its energy. Snorlax winced from the intrusion, but growled, and tugged at the tight vines pulling it away from Ash, desperately trying to break free.

It was soon clear to Snorlax that these pokémon were no longer the same weaklings it had faced several weeks ago. They had grown infuriatingly stronger, and were quite the match for it. Delphi spread her wings and exerted her psychic influence to lock Snorlax in place, and Hydrus helped with his Disable.

Snorlax bellowed, but a Dark Pulse from Screecher smote it is the face, followed by a series of quick jabs from Ash's Scyther that left smooth grooves on its rotund stomach.

Snorlax growled, and kept resisting its chains despite knowing that it would be futile. Ash knew it too, because he quickly lost the fearful glint in his eyes and regarded Snorlax with a little bit of arrogance. "Will you listen?" he told it coolly.

Snorlax glared at him, but Ash stared right back, not giving into its intimidating and fierce scowl. Finally, it averted its eyes, and Ash nodded curtly. "Good. I'll let my friends let you go, but only if you promise to not attack us again. If you do, they're going to stop you right back, and this time they're not going to be kind about it."

Snorlax growled reluctantly in understanding. He nodded at his friends, and Saur hesitantly unwrapped his vines, although they were still peeking out from under his bud just in case. Delphi moved over to stand in front of Ash before she let go of her Psychic. Hydrus concluded his Disable, but his gem was still glowing faintly, ready to attack Snorlax if it dared to move an inch.

Fortunately, Snorlax did not renew its assault. It instead began glowering at each and every member of Ash's team, but each of them regarded it coolly. Screecher had the nerve to smile pleasantly at it, and that infuriated Snorlax to no end. While she was grinning, her eyes were frosty and almost merciless.

"Alright, let's clear things up. First, you know I captured you with this." Snorlax growled as Ash held up the ultra-ball. "This means that I'm your trainer. Now, you have a choice. You can either come with me and my friends on my journey to get stronger – I'll treat you with the respect you deserve, I'll feed you, give you a better life than the wild can ever provide – or you can go with another trainer who'll waste no time in straightening your spine. In return, I simply want you not to rebel.

"What's it going to be? Do you want to get stronger with my friends?" he asked. He waited somewhat impatiently, but was pleased to see Snorlax nod, albeit curtly. "Good." He didn't bother asking Snorlax whether it wanted a nickname, because he knew that it would sooner kill itself that take one up. Instead, Ash briefly introduced Snorlax to the rest of the team, choosing not to reprimand it from the way Snorlax ignored them.

"I'm going to return you for now, Snorlax. We'll be training in some time, so I'll let you out then."

Snorlax dispassionately disappeared into the ultra-ball, and Ash sighed once it was safely tucked within its confines. Ash sighed, then smiled at his team. "Good job, guys. Time to eat, yeah?"

His team had rarely sounded this eager.

XxXxX

The next few days of Ash's stay at Celadon City passed in what felt like a blink of an eye. He spent his majority of his time training with Misty, who had turned out to be a great help, especially with trying to teach Hydrus Hydro Pump. Misty had been a slave driver, training Ash's Golduck and her own Wartortle for a gruelling six hours a day just trying to perfect Hydro Pump, but her efforts had been fruitful, to say the least.

"He's coming along pretty well," Misty told him on one Tuesday. They and their pokémon were taking a short break before resuming their practice. She cracked open her soft drink, which fizzled, and took a hard swig from it. "I'd say your Golduck – and Wartortle, of course – are about halfway there. I'm making him work on his control so that he uses the appropriate amount of pressure, and increase his stamina. Golduck – sorry, Hydrus – expends his water reserves pretty quickly."

Ash took a sip from his own can, and grimaced a bit as the carbonated drink made his tongue feel like it was being burned through by a dollop of acid. He made a mental note to never try Sting again. "That's good. And, uh, thanks for helping me out, Misty."

Misty smiled. "No problem, Ketchum. I'm just doing this so that you prove to be at least _somewhat_ of a challenge in the Conference."

"Hey!"

"Kidding," she said. They spent some time talking about the Conference, potential threats, and the like. In the back of his mind, Ash kept thinking about what it would feel like for him to win the Indigo Conference as a rookie. Red had been the first one to do so in forty-seven years, and Ash was hoping that he would be the one to beat his brother's record.

Ash and Misty finished their drinks fairly slowly, and Misty snickered at Ash's rude, loud burp that sent her Slowbro groaning. "So," she asked suddenly, "when are you leaving Celadon?"

Ash was caught off-guard by this question, but he recovered in no time. "Uh, I was actually planning to stay for two more days and leave the next. Why?"

Misty shrugged. "I was just wondering if I could tag along with you. I'm heading to Fuchsia, too. I've heard that they imported a bunch of Hoenn pokémon a few months ago – I was thinking of grabbing a Clamperl or two over there. But I'm planning to leave in four days, because I'm meeting up with Surge the day after, for, uh…"

She trailed off, and looked as if she was mentally cursing herself. Ash had a few suspicions about why Surge was meeting Misty all of a sudden, unless they were secretly together (which as did not want to think about).

"Er…Is it about the _pokémon energy amplifier_?" he guessed wildly. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw her blanch, but she recovered very quickly.

"How do you know about that?" she demanded, her voice laced with anxiety and anger.

"Um, Surge t-told me about it when he visited me after the…you know, St Anne thing," he stammered out.

Misty blinked. "You're lucky they told you anything," she grumbled, looking angrily at a twig on the ground. "All they told me was where they got it from and what it did, nothing apart from that, and _I'm_ a gym leader. Only the high-ups know every detail about it. Mr Kiamusze just told me that Surge was going to give me a package that I'd have to deliver to Blaine, who's going to gather more intel about it with his wacko scientists. Of course, this is highly classified information, so I'd rather you not blab to anyone…"

"My lips are sealed," Ash promised. "Surge told me that it releases a lot of energy, or something. Are they trying to make bombs?"

"I…really don't know," Misty admitted. "Nukes can be a plausible reason, but there can be multiple others. For all I know, they could be using it to power something that needs a lot of energy. All I know is that I don't want to find out. Blaine is the best at doing this awesome science-y stuff. We'll leave it to him."

"I hope the League sorts it all out," Ash said. "Team Rocket has done a lot of bad things; I don't want another to be added to the list."

XxXxX

Celadon had been great so far. Ash had spent his days either training or exploring the city. It was something that Ash found both exhilaration and calming, like a lukewarm destination, a mesh between Saffron and Pallet. He departmental store was the largest hotspot, one which Ash visited on a daily basis during his stay, but there were several other locations that Ash hit during his visit.

The Contest Hall was a place that Ash visited nearly as frequently as the infamous departmental store. It was fascinating to see the different battle styles of coordinators trying to win a ribbon, but it also saddened him whenever he sat in the bleachers, because he kept thinking about Luna. He knew that the trade had been for the best – Kratos was now Ash's most obedient pokémon, and the Scyther blended with his trainer fluidly – but he still kept feeling a sense of melancholy whenever he thought about the Clefairy; how could he not? She'd been with him for several months now. It was almost like losing a close friend because you were moving away.

Apart fro that, there were also several different restaurants where Ash spent his mealtimes. The Pokécenter served good food, but it was time to try different things. Erika had given him a tour and led him to several of her favourite restaurants. It also helped that she paid for most of his meals.

There as one place he hadn't visited yet, mostly because he had been a bit wary of it, but he figured that he might as well check it out before he left for Fuchsia. The Game Corner was a flashy place, and the large sign left him blinking the spots out of his eyes, but he stood there nevertheless. It was something he wanted to try, but he swore never to tell his mom that he'd been here. Who knows what she'd do if she was told about this? While it was legal for him to enter casinos, he didn't want her to get worked up over the fact that he was entering "adult places".

Ash had asked Misty if she wanted to come with him, but she'd declined, saying that she was going to be spending the day with Erika at a spa, so the only companions he had were his pokémon, who were safely tucked in their pokéballs on his belt.

He had been to a casino on the St Anne, but he still couldn't stop his jaw from slackening as he saw the list of prizes one could trade for coins. Abra, Tangela, Dratini, Porygon…the list was endless. There were even Clefairy as prizes, but that sent him in a sad state, although he snapped out of it fairly quickly.

"Hell yes." Ash grinned. He walked up to the counter and quickly purchased a coin case, and a hundred coins to start with. The employees weirded him out, but he shook his head; Ash had met several strange people on his journey, so this wasn't a problem. Still, the leers and clearly fake smiles made him walk to an empty slot machine a bit faster than normal.

"Come on," Ash hissed through gritted teeth, and inserted another coin into the machine. He'd been going at it probably a hundred times now, and he'd only managed to win a little over four hundred coins, while he'd lost two hundred. This was a lot harder than gruelling than he'd imagined it to be. Ash hadn't learnt much from his time at the St Anne casino.

He immediately jabbed the stop button with his finger, and found out that it had stopped at the Magnemite – now all he had to do was wrangle three Magnemite in a row, and he'd win several coins, if not the jackpot. Something was better than nothing, and Ash was ready for anything.

Ash's heart leapt up in his throat when the middle row stopped at the Magnemite too. "Yes!" he exclaimed, and jumped up slightly, but that was a mistake. As he landed back on his seat, he stumbled and grabbed at the machine to stop his fall, only for his thumb to land on the button and press on it. The spinning images slowed to a halt and stopped on a Shellder.

"No!"

XxXxX

"Gah— _dammit_!" Ash screamed, and ignored the people staring at him as he angrily shook the machine. He expected an employee to approach him and throw him out, but he didn't care. This thing was infuriating. "Come _on_!"

Ash left after that. It wasn't like there was much to do at the Game Corner, anyway, but he'd decided to stop after fearing that he was growing addicted to gambling. As much as he wanted to win some of that money, bankruptcy was not on his list. Several people in the casino looked like they'd spent days inside without any contact with the living world, on the verge of crying.

"I'd like to exchange these coins for pokédollars, please," Ash told the receptionist. It wasn't a hundred percent exchange – the game corner would give back a percentage of money that was smaller than the price of a game coin. Still, Ash would welcome any cash he could get, and in moments his coins were replaced with wads of bills.

It took him ten or fifteen minutes to get back to the Pokécenter – it was a lot faster once you knew how to get around the place. His pokémon were still with Nurse Joy, recovering from their training earlier that day. By this time, Ash was sure that they would be alright, and he was already planning to train once more after taking a bite of lunch, which he admitted after his stomach gurgled loud enough for passers-by to stare and snort at him.

It was as he was walking to the Pokécenter that he noticed a group of people walking around, glancing at the people and pokémon. Ash first suspected them to be part of a travelling group, or a fan club, or part of a rally, but they weren't wearing any costumes or a particular dress code – just normal clothes that made them look like someone you'd forget in an instant. They looked normal enough, and Ash would've probably ignored them, if it hadn't been for around ten men and women clubbed together in a group.

"Bunch of weirdos," Ash commented idly as he walked to the Pokécenter. The translucent doors slid open, allowing him entrance. He sighed in bliss as he was suddenly hit by a blast of cold air from the numerous air conditioners around.

The Nurse Joy immediately recognised him once he approached the front desk. "Oh, it's you," she said with a smile. "Your pokémon will be here in a moment."

"Alright," Ash said, humming softly as Joy took a look at the machines at her disposal to search for his pokémon. It was only a minute before she returned with a batch of pokéballs on a tray.

"Just some minor bruising, but I fixed that. Your Xatu had a bent wing, but I fixed her up in a jiffy. Just remember to add some calcium and iron in her diet for the next two days, to speed her recovery," she said. "I also must tell you that your Ivysaur is getting close to evolution."

Ash's eyes brightened. "Really?" he asked, hopeful.

Joy beamed at him, pleased by his happiness. "His bud is coming along nicely. I'm also pleased with the way you've taken care of his fronds – most trainers don't attend to it, and therefore most Ivysaur end up with tattered and torn leaves. I suspect it'll be just a few more weeks until the bud blooms and he turns into a Venusaur. Just remember to give him calming potions whenever he gets agitated, and expose him to sunlight and moist soil whenever you can to get the best results."

"Thanks a lot, Nurse!"

"My pleasure. Anything else?" she prodded.

Ash shook his head. "I'll just need the room for tonight."

Joy smiled. "Alright. Take care, and stay safe!"

Ash thanked the nurse and then walked upstairs to settle in his room. He was just about to release his pokémon when he heard a scream, muffled through his door. Then there were two sharp bangs, like someone hitting a wall with a hammer, followed by more screams, until silence reigned.

Frowning, Ash started to walk downstairs, holding Kratos's pokéball tight in his hand, the others forgotten on his bed. He didn't know what was going on, but he didn't want to go unprepared. Maybe a fight had broken out?

It was only when he was halfway down the stairs that he stopped.

Rockets.

Seeing the red 'R's printed on the front of their black jumpsuits forced the horrible, suppressed memories of the St Anne to resurface. For a moment he just stood there, shivering as he remembered seeing the hundreds of people on the deck, little pinpricks from so high above atop of Surge's Fearow, being eradicated off the face of the earth with a single explosion. Then he remembered drowning. Being tossed in the ocean like a plaything, not knowing whether he'd survive the ordeal. Every second if that day had been spent with his heart hammering and his blood pounding.

Ash gulped. He began to trace his steps back to his room as slowly as possible, but it took only two steps for him to freeze as he felt cold metal pressed into the base of his skull.

Something clicked. "Don't try anything," someone said.

Ash didn't.

The aggressor nudged Ash with her gun, forcing him to take a step down the stairs. "Now get in with the others," the person ordered. Ash suppressed a gulp.

When he didn't move, the woman behind Ash growled. "Didn't you hear what I fucking said? Move!"

She slammed the base of the gun into his head, the force making him lose his balance. Ash grunted and whimpered as he tumbled down the stairs. His whole body ached as he rolled down, crashing into each step, until he finally stopped at the foot face-first.

Ash groaned in pain. He was sure he'd broken something, but every inch of his body was hurting so bad that he couldn't pinpoint what had actually cracked. He heard a sadistic snort from the female Rocket, who spun the pistol in her hand casually as she approached him. Then, with deceptive strength, she hauled him up by his arm and began dragging him to the circle of people, who were cowering under the gaze of the criminals.

Ash landed next to Nurse Joy, who was protectively holding a little girl no older than six close to her chest. She was sobbing openly, snot and tears mixing on Nurse Joy's front. "I-I want m-mommy to be a-l-live," she bawled softly.

Joy looked like she was barely holding it together, and her grip tightened around the girl. "I know, darling," she said.

"Is there anyone else, Charmaine?" one of the male Rockets asked, wiping the blood from his knuckles.

Charmaine – who was the same Rocket that had assaulted him, and looked no older than sixteen, much to Ash's amazement and horror – shook her head. "The chump was the only one left. Trust me, Jordi."

Jordi nodded. Then he held out his hand, accepting the gun, before firing a shot into the air and shattering an overhead light. He dutifully ignored the screams that followed. "A'right, now listen up! This is Rocket Raid. Now, I want none of y'all to make a single noise. Failure to do so will lead to your death. If I see anyone doing anything funny, or trying to resist, I'll pop a bullet in your head. Understood?"

"At least leave the children alone," Joy begged. Ash was silently impressed by the sheer courage the woman had to speak up, since she was this close to facing death.

The Rocket frowned. "I think I told you to shut up, didn't I?" he growled menacingly, taking aim.

Suddenly there were shrieks as a sharp bang echoed in the lobby of the Pokécenter. Ash's heart leaped in his throat when he finally looked at Nurse Joy. The child in her arm was crying harder as she suddenly went limp, the bullet in her forehead extinguishing her life. Blood seeped out of the wound while bits of her brain were splattered over the floor behind her. The sight of so much gore was so nauseating, that Ash's stomach churned, and it was barely a second before his stomach emptied itself and his bile and vomit mixed with the blood.

Jordi sighed. "Another one bites the dust," he sang, uncaring. The aftertaste of bile still strong in his mouth, Ash felt a sudden burst of rage and unadulterated hatred towards the criminal. He'd just murdered a defenceless woman in cold blood – and there had been no flicker of emotion on his face as he took a life so ruthlessly. To Ash, the man was already dead – he just didn't know it.

"Alright," the Rocket grunted. "Look here. As long as you fuckers fork over your monsters, money, whatever the hell you have, we'll let you live. There's no need to add more bodies to the pile, yeah? Hand them over!" he added, cocking his gun when no one moved.

A Rocket grunt made rounds to collect any valuables from people. There were a few trainers that resisted at first, but they relented, not wanting to follow Nurse Joy's fate. Pokédollars were added to belts of pokéball, along with any jewellery. A few even had pokédexes, but even those were taken away.

Ash stared hatefully as the Rocket shamelessly searched Nurse Joy's body, shrugging when he found nothing save for a diamond encrusted ring. The boy's gaze only hardened when the Rocket moved onto him. "Empty your pockets, kid. Unlike Jordi, I don't wanna hurt kids. Don't get yourself killed."

"You're no different than him," Ash muttered spitefully, but the man only sighed. Then, with sudden speed, he punched Ash across the face.

The man shook his wrist. "I told you, don't make this harder than it already is. Just hand over your stuff."

When Ash didn't budge, the Rocket began rummaging through his clothes, and ended up with a few pokédollars and Kratos's pokéball. It was a good thing that Ash kept his wallet in his pocket, so it wasn't much of a loss, but seeing his Scyther's pokéball being snatched made him want to thrash someone. In any case, there were far more pressing matters at hand.

"That's all there is, Jordi," the Rocket said as he zipped up his loot.

"Good. Now, I want you and Nino to check out the Pokécenter's database. Check if Waterflower's name is there."

Water— _Misty_? Ash's head was spinning as he tried to wonder _why_ Team Rocket was specifically targeting Misty. It wasn't as if she'd been a thorn in their side; apart from the Mt Moon incident, she had never encounter Team Rocket grunts, or had any other interaction with them. Why were they— unless—

" _The amplifier_ ," Ash breathed, the words barely audible. There was no contest – the pokémon energy amplifier had to be the only reason for Team Rocket to want to apprehend Misty. He knew where she was as of now – she had told him that she was spending the day with Erika at the Gym – and he also knew that Misty was meeting Surge tomorrow. So either the Rockets were unable to read dates correctly, or their source had somehow messed up.

Ash quickly scanned the situation with worried eyes. He'd first thought about running back to his room and calling forth the rest of his pokémon, but the Rockets made him reconsider that decision. They had plenty of pokémon out – one or two per person. He could see three Golbat, two Graveler, a Drowzee and six Magnemite, to name a few. Ash was sure that his pokémon could handle the lot of them, but the leader had pokémon that were big and mean. He could easily see the menacing Mightyena and the huge Ursaring flanking him. The leader's Dodrio perched atop a couch told him that it would take a miracle for him to get away unnoticed.

Then there was a small noise next to him. "Pssst!" someone hissed.

Ash flinched, but discreetly looked to his right, glaring angrily at the person next to him. He looked much older – probably fifteen or sixteen, with a light stubble and long chestnut hair. " _What_?" Ash said in a near-whisper, slightly annoyed. "You'll get us killed!"

The teenager ignored him. "Do you have any pokémon back in your room?" he whispered back.

Ash frowned. "Yes. Why?"

He sighed in relief. "Thank God. Look, I'm going to need your help to get out of this mess."

"How?"

They stopped talking for a moment when they noticed a Rocket grunt nearing them. Thankfully, the grunt was simply taking rounds, and looked ready to sleep on the job. Typical. "I have a Porygon," he said, as if that explained everything.

Ash scowled. "So what?"

"I told you to keep it quite! Do y'all wanna end up like our dear old nurse over here?!" the Rocket leader bellowed. The hostages cowered under the stare of his weapon as the Mightyena growled, saliva dripping from its mouth. Satisfied with the silence, Jordi jerked his head at the grunt commandeering the Pokécenter's front desk. "Did you find it yet?"

"They forgot to minimise our pokéballs, that's what," the boy told Ash. "If you don't know, Porygon can manoeuvre through cyberspace. Now, I can easily link my Porygon2 to my dex and release him from there. Then all we have to do is grab your pokémon, kick some butt, and call the authorities."

Ash glanced at the Rockets. It was a good plan, but… "How do we get about it?" he quizzed.

"My girlfriend Sheila agreed to distracting them for a few minutes." Next to him, an equally scared girl, about the same age as her boyfriend, smiled nervously at Ash. "All I need is a minute. Okay?"

"What if they kill the rest?" Ash asked anxiously.

"The only reason they haven't is for hostage purposes," he muttered. "If not, they'd have killed us without hesitating. Fucking sickos."

"Are you sure this'll work, Zack?" Sheila asked.

"Like a well-oiled machine," Zack muttered, looking around. Then he looked at Ash. "So, you in?"

Ash gulped. This was dangerous, but when had he not done anything dangerous? He'd been in several deadly situations before. This wasn't any different.

If he could help save people, he would do it. His idols – Giovanni, Lance, his mom – had instilled selflessness in him. So he nodded determinedly. "I'm in," he said.

Zack grinned. "Let's do it."

Ash shuddered. He kept himself a few inches of the ground, his hands and legs placed in a way that would allow him to flow into a run fluidly. He could see Zack's blue pokédex poking from the rear pocket of his blue jeans, which blended perfectly and masked the presence of the device. His fingers were just inches away from taking it out.

"One, two, three, now," Zack whispered.

Immediately, Sheila began talking. "When will you let us go?" she asked, lip trembling. She sounded genuinely scared, which didn't come as a surprise to the others.

Jordi barely spared a glance, which was a good thing, as Zack quickly switched his pokédex on and began fumbling with the device. Ash could only make out six pokéballs on the pokédex's screen. "When our job's done, sweetheart," the Rocket replied.

Sheila gulped. "Well, can I at least have s-some w-water?" she begged. Ash's heart pounded when the pokédex began to whirr loudly, but Zack blocked the noise by shoving it under his jeans and sitting firmly on the ground.

The Rocket seemed to have had enough, because he cocked his gun and pointed it directly at Sheila, who whimpered. Ash tensed, worried for her life. "Enough talking, kid. Another word, and I'll have your brains paint the floor. You understand m—"

"Now!" Zack yelled, bringing his dex out and pointing it in front of himself.

A beam of brilliant white light streamed out of the pokédex's lens, startling everyone and blinding the Rockets. A split-second later, the polygonal, floating form of a Porygon2 formed in front of Zack, whirring mechanically. Its impassive eyes regarded the blinded grunts coolly, waiting for an order from its trainer.

"Protect!" Zack ordered, not wanting to give the Rockets a chance to recover. Without so much of a twitch, a green, curved barrier was erected, large enough to protect Ash, Zack and Sheila at the same time.

"RUN!" Ash said. Without a second to lose, the three of them bolted towards the stairs to get to their rooms.

"SHIT! Charmaine, Sergei, go after them. I want the fuckers dead!"

The Rockets fired in their direction, but Ash and the others kept running anyway. While Porygon2's Protect would absorb the bullets, there was no way they were going to stop until they got back to their room.

A loud crash sounded behind them, and Ash stole a glance to see in horror as a Graveler's Mega Punch finally shatter the Protect barrier. Immediately, Ash ducked as Charmaine reloaded her gun, crying out to warn the others.

"Hyper Beam!" Zack ordered. A bolt of white-hot energy exploded from Porygon2's beak, slamming into Graveler and knocking it off its feet, clearly overpowered. There was a cry of horror as the Graveler flew straight into its trainer and crushed him under its weight, the sickening sound of bones breaking and blood squelching following it not a moment after.

They were almost halfway to Ash's room now. He could already see the door, and the handle was only a few feet away—

Next to them, Sheila tripped, landing awkwardly on the stairs. Zack cried out and reached out to her, but Porygon2 had recreated the Protect barrier at the exact same moment, and prevent him from taking her hand.

"SHEILA!"

Gunshots filled the air.

Ash was unable to tear his eyes as Sheila spasmed, her body shredded by a volley of bullets. For a second, her mouth was open in a scream, but nothing came out as she fell to the ground, eyes rolled into the back of her head.

As much as they wanted to stay there and mourn for her, Ash knew that the Rockets would be upon them in seconds. With reluctance, he dragged Zack towards the rooms, ducking reflexively even though Porygon2 was easily deflecting the bullets pouring out of the guns.

The female Rocket had started chasing them again, along with a few more, courtesy of Jordi's urging. The bullets were pounding against the barrier, small shockwaves of energy pulsing on the translucent emerald wall, but it was erect and holding up as if it was barely fazed. Charmaine was almost upon them, and Ash managed to get inside his room with Zack, slamming it shut, but the Rocket managed to jam it with her hand, holding the black handgun in her grip.

"Get — out!" Ash screamed, repeatedly slamming the door on the wrist. A string of expletives made themselves known from the other side of the door. There were loud cracks as Ash repeatedly banged the door into the Rocket's wrist, doing his best to make her retrieve her hand, but that only seemed to aggravate her.

 _Bang_!

"Fuck!" Zack cried, falling to his knees as he clutched at his leg. A bullet had drilled right through his leg, making him gasp and hiss as he put pressure over it, blood leaking through the gaps between his fingers.

Ash growled. Newfound strength coursed through him, and he began obliterating Charmaine's hand with renewed vigour. The Rocket screamed, and Ash felt a twinge of guilt that was quickly extinguished when he reminded himself that it was a criminal, not a helpless girl that he was attacking. Finally, her hand went limp, the gun falling from her grasp, and her hand disappeared like a snake realizing that its prey was much stronger than it had anticipated.

He locked it, knowing that it probably wouldn't buy him much time, but it would have to be enough. Almost everything in the Pokécenter was built to withstand monstrous creatures, but Ash doubted that it would hold the Rockets off for long.

"Open the door!" a voice reverberated. "You're going to die anyway, so a few more minutes won't matter!"

"We need to get out of this place somehow," Zack said between gasps. His face was streaked with tears – no doubt shed for the loss of Sheila – and he was leaning on the table.

"But how?" Ash asked.

"I don't know!"

"You were the one who came up with the plan," Ash yelled. "You should've come up with a way to escape!"

"Look, bickering isn't going to help us at all," Zack said, struggling to keep his anger in check. "We need to think of something, and fast — Porygon2, Ice Beam at the door." He added. The artificial pokémon made a mechanical beep of agreement, before shooting freezing arcs of energy that quickly struck the door, without the force that would probably blow it off its hinges. Frost and thick ice covered the door and spread to the walls around it, keeping it in check. It continued its attack for a minute or two, until there was a thick, craggy shell formed that would buy them some more time.

"Thanks," Ash said.

Zack ignored him. "Do you have a pokémon that can get us out of here? Like, a psychic, perhaps? One that can Teleport?"

Ash grinned. "Yeah!" he exclaimed. Then his face fell. "I don't think she's that strong to Teleport the three of us out of here," he added, crestfallen.

"We won't know until we've tried," Zack insisted. "Get it out!"

After clipping his pokéballs to the belt (he felt a twinge of guilt when he noticed that Kratos's was missing) and putting on his backpack, he detached Delphi's pokéball and tapped the release button. The green bird materialized between them, barely blinking when she formed. She looked quizzically at Zack, and Ash quickly debriefed her about the situations.

"There are Rockets in the building," Ash informed. Delphi's eyes flashed in anger, but she remained calm, choosing to stare at the door, which was shuddered as something pounded it from outside. "We need you to Teleport the two of us from here – can you do it?"

The Xatu looked surprised for a second, but she quickly recovered. A short yet hesitant nod answered his question.

"We're counting on you, Delphi," he told her, his voice laced with hope.

Delphi nodded, looking at Zack as he recalled his Porygon2. The door had finally been penetrated, and more cracks were spreading through the door and slowly through the shell of ice. All Ash could see was a purple, reptilian fist, that of a Machoke, continuously pounding the obstruction.

"Quickly!" Ash added.

Delphi's eyes closed in concentration, a blue glow engulfing her avian body. She stretched out her white wines, placing them on Ash's and Zack's shoulders. Instantly, Ash felt as if his insides were turning hot and cold simultaneously. It was a weird sensation, one that he couldn't exactly place, but remember for eternity.

Ash flinched when suddenly the ice broke apart. Chunks and slabs of frost flew towards them, a muscled arms protruding from the source of breakage. It was only two punches later that the Ice was completely obliterated, ground into large crystals.

The Machoke entered the room, glowering as it cracked its knuckles.

"Come on!" Ash cried.

The Machoke lunged, its fist a mere foot away from crushing Ash's skull—

The next thing was probably the most painful moment of his life.

Ash felt like he was being sucked through an incredibly smart space, like a rubber pipe. It made his stomach churn and his insides feel like they were being balled up. Something was crushing him from every possible angle, but before the second had passed, it was over.

Still, the migraine in his head didn't stop, even after his feet touched solid ground. His knees bucked he fell to the ground, feeling the urge to hurl. His stomach finally unravelled, and it was a few moments before he was back up on his feet.

"Guh…" Ash coughed into his fist.

"I know, the first time sucks," he heard Zack say.

Ash looked up at Delphi, who looked close to fainting. "Good job, girl."

The Xatu crowed droopily. She looked much better after being fed a few choice Sirius berries, however.

"Where are we, anyway?" Ash asked.

"Celadon Gym." Zack sighed. "Why aren't we at the police station, again?"

"Be happy that Delphi got you out of the Pokécenter," Ash snapped. Truthfully, Ash felt better at the fact that he was at the Celadon Gym instead of elsewhere. He needed to see a friendly face instead of one that he'd never seen before, even if it was a CCPD officer.

They barged in through the doors of the Gym, manners forgotten. The receptionist flinched at the sudden entry, but she recovered fairly quickly. "How may I help you?" she asked.

"Where's Erika?!" Ash demanded, the palms of his hand slapping the front desk.

"Sh-She's currently outside," she stammered.

"Call her up, now," Ash ordered. The receptionist nodded meekly and went about her task.

"Ffffuuuuck," Zack droned. He sniffled. "This sucks."

Ash placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I, uh…I'm sorry about Sheila," he said awkwardly.

Zack wiped a tear from his face. "It's not your fault. It's _Team Rocket's_."

"Yes, Ma'am," Ash heard the receptionist say. She put the phone down, then smiled at Ash. "Leader Erika will be here shortly—"

"What happened?" a voice said. The doors slid open, admitted a frazzled looking Erika and an equally tired Misty, along with an Exeggutor having the afterglow of teleportation. "Is everything alright?" Erika asked, recalling her pokémon.

Ash sighed in relief, his shoulders slumping. "Thank God you're here," he said. "The Pokécenter – there's a Rocket Raid going on!"

" _What_?!" Misty exclaimed.

"He's telling the truth, Leader Verdant," Zack said formally. "Rockets infiltrated the Pokécenter about an hour ago. Ash and I managed to get out via teleportation at the last second."

It was then that Ash heard the familiar sound of something clicking. With dawning horror, he turned around to see the receptionist standing up, a handgun in her outstretched hand, pointed directly at Ash's forehead.

"Ash!" Erika screamed. The receptionist regarded him with impassive eyes, her fingers moving over the handgun's trigger.

It was Delphi who saved the day. With a shriek, she slashed her arm seconds before the receptionist was about to pull the trigger, releasing a blade of wind that raced towards the woman. She screamed as the Air Slash cleaved perfectly through her forearm, her detached hand falling to the ground while the Air Slash dug a smooth groove into the wall next to her.

The receptionist fell to her knees, screaming in pain as she grabbed the stump from which blood was spewing out like a water sprinkler. Her sliced arm was lying prone on the ground in the pool of blood, and Erika kicked the gun away before her receptionist could grab for it with the other arm.

"I can't believe it, Danielle!" Erika exclaimed in equal amounts of shock and anger. "You're a Rocket? I could kill you right now!"

Misty, however, had no such reservations. She quickly stormed to the injured Rocket and kneed her in the face. Blood gushed out of the broken nose, and a few teeth were knocked out by the force of the kick.

Misty growled as she grabbed the Rocket by her hair and pulled her head up. The sight of her was disgusting – blood was smeared all over her face, and her two front teeth were missing. "Why have Rockets infiltrated Celadon?!" she interrogated in a loud voice, ingoing the spray of blood on her skirt from the stump of an arm.

"Puh-please!" the Rocket begged. "I don't know anything!"

"Don't bullshit me, Danielle." Misty slammed her head into the counter, eliciting another moan and whimper of pain from the girl. "What do you know?!"

"J-Just that th-they're after you and Lieutenant Surge!" she told them. "That's all I know, I swear!"

Misty looked at Erika in shock. "How did they know about the amplifier?!"

The water trainer looked back at Danielle, and her expression hardened. "How many Rockets are there, and what places are they hitting?"

Danielle whimpered. "Around two hundred," she answered. "They'll be searching the d-departmental store, the Pokécenter, the Game Corner, Coronary Street, the Pokémart and downtown. That's all I know, I swear!"

"Then you're of no use to me." With a primal roar of rage, Misty judo-flipped Danielle expertly, barely wincing when the Rocket slammed into the wall and slumped down, unconscious. The she brushed off the blood off her denim shorts, and grimaced when some of it was smeared on her legs. "Bitch," Misty growled.

Ash immediately made a mental note to never anger Misty Waterflower.

"That was a bit brutal," Erika noted.

"She's a Rocket. That's what she deserves," Misty defended.

"Are we just going go let her bleed out?" Zack asked.

"As much as I hate to say it, we can't let her die. I'll call the paramedics immediately," Erika said. "Maybe we can get something out of her from her memories."

"…alright," Misty agreed reluctantly. "Can't believe I was about to exchange pokégear numbers with the bitch."

"Enough," Erika said sternly once she got off the phone. "In any case, I've informed the CCPD and the League about the situation. The Rockets won't stand a chance. Ash and, uh…"

"Zachariah Jones," Zack piped up.

"Zachariah," Erika smiled. "Right, the two of you, stay here. Medics will arrive here shortly."

"Good," Zack said in relief. "My leg is killing me."

"I'm not going to stay here!" Ash said indignantly. "There are Rockets out there. I — I can help!"

"Ash, you're a child," Erika said patronizingly. "You don't know what Team Rocket is capable of—"

"I am fully aware of what Team Rocket is capable of," he interjected coldly. He tugged at his shirt, showing the puckered scar he'd received from Proton's Ariados back in Mt Moon.

Erika sighed. "Look, Ash, this is dangerous. Just because you managed to get lucky a few times—"

"I didn't get lucky!"

"I'm not going to let you write your own death certificate, Ash!" Erika bellowed, slapping him across the face. His cheek came away red and angry, and tears stung his eyes from the pain. "You'll be waiting here with Zachariah, and will head to the hospital once the paramedics arrive. I do not want to see you out on the streets. Do you understand me?!"

"…Yes," he mumbled resentfully.

Erika nodded. "Good." She looked at Misty, who nodded. "Misty, let's go."

Misty grinned, cracking her knuckles before releasing her Starmie next to her. The mysterious pokémon beeped mechanically before cartwheeling away with its trainer.

Once the doors slid shut, Ash stomped in frustration. "I hate this!"

Zack looked at him quizzically. "Hate what?" he asked.

"Not being able to do anything," Ash answered, ignoring the armless girl's moans and whimpers from the corner of the room. "I want to be out there. They have my pokémon!" he added, remembering Kratos. He had just gotten the Scyther. Fate would certainly live up to its expectation of cruelty if Kratos was taken away from him. Dawn would certainly not be pleased.

Zack's face darkened. "They have mine, too. And Sheila's." He scowled, wiping away another tear that had formed at the mention of his deceased girlfriend. "I hope Erika fucks them up real bad."

Ash sighed. He pulled out his pokédex, switched it on, and then pulled up the function that would allow him to locate missing registered pokéballs. It was a nifty function that would allow someone to find out the whereabouts of pokéballs that had either been lost or stolen until they were 'cracked' or had their trainer IDs changed.

The pokédex showed a red dot pinpointing the location of Kratos's pokéball, currently still at the Pokécenter. Ash glowered.

"Screw this," he muttered, tucking his dex back into his pocket. "Delphi, get me out of here."

"Woah, wait!" Zack said. "Where are you going?"

"To help," Ash answered. "I'm not going to sit and wait while others do the dirty work."

"Listen, kid, this isn't a comic book, or, or an animé," Zack said. "When you die, you die. There's no coming back, no sequel. You may think you sound badass right now, but those are a fool's words. A fool hell bent on getting himself killed."

Ash hesitated.

But before he could make a decision, he was rudely interrupted when the doors of the gym quickly slid open. Paranoid at the intrusion, Ash grabbed at the pokéballs on his belt, but stopped when he saw medics instead of the expected Rockets – there was even a ranger along with them.

The ranger immediately scowled and headed for his pokéball, releasing a fairly large Houndoom. "Return your pokémon!" he ordered. Ash did so, recalling Delphi in a second, and the ranger visibly relaxed. "Thank you. Now, can you tell me who needs to be attended to, son?"

Ash quickly debriefed the ranger, Sargent Williamson, about the situation. He scowled when he was told about Danielle being a Rocket, and looked at her in disgust. The paramedics quickly began tending to Zack, and rudimentarily patched up Danielle's stump of an arm, stopping any more blood from soaking the floor. The stench of iron was thick in the air, so Ash was extremely pleased to get out of the gym.

"Is there anyone else in the gym?" Williamson asked.

Ash shrugged. "There might be a few gym trainers; aside from that, I have no idea."

Williamson nodded, then looked at the two rangers guarding the ambulance as Zack and Danielle were boarded onto it. "Bletchley, Miles, scan the building for any persons. Subdue if hostile. Understood?"

Miles and Bletchley nodded before storming the building. They returned ten minutes later with four gym trainers, who went into a separate van with the two ranger corporals. Ash was told to get into the van; it was a bit awkward sitting there were four girls a few years older to him, but anything was better than being stuck in that infected gym lobby.

"Alright, here we go," said the driver, pressing down on the accelerator.

Five minutes into the ride, the van rumbled. Everyone glanced at each other in worry and confusion.

"Is something wrong?" one of the gym trainers asked, as they saw the ambulance overtake them from behind and speed into the distance.

The ranger at the wheel looked at his companion, who quickly tugged at the radio. "Williamson, this is Miles. Are you having mechanical problems? Over."

There was static from the other end, but nothing else was said.

Miles frowned at his partner. "What—"

The van lurched forward as something hit them from behind. It wasn't a soft bump, but one packed with enough force to send them temporarily veering left and right. The driver was fighting to control the vehicle, only for it to jerk several more times as something kept hitting slamming into them from behind.

There was the sound of rubber wheels screeching against the smooth road, then Ash screamed as he suddenly felt weightlessness. The van flipped over, sending everyone flying as it tumbled along the concrete road. Loud screams blended with the sound of metal scraping the ground and chunks of glass bounced along the inside of the vehicle.

When the van finally skidded to a halt, the vehicle producing a harsh screech as it did so, Ash rose groggily from where he'd been thrown. His ears were ringing and his head was throbbing with pain as he tried to blink out the blurriness in front of his eyes. His tongue darted in his mouth, and he felt a missing incisor – it had probably been chipped off when he'd crashed face first into the van's handlebar.

"What the hell?" one of the rangers said, groaning. His partner recovered far quicker, scowling as he grabbed three pokéballs off his belt.

"Bletchley, keep your pokémon at the ready." The ranger in person groaned once again, but nodded slowly as he enlarged one of the pokéballs at his belt.

"Do you think it's the Rockets, Miles?" Bletchley asked.

His partner said nothing. Instead, ranger Miles let loose one of his three pokémon – a Rotom. Instinctively, Ash held his pokédex protectively, even though he was sure that the notorious plasma pokémon wouldn't infect his dex.

"Rotom, paralyze anyone who opens the door. Don't hold back," Miles growled. The Rotom buzzed, sparks flickering to life around the arm-like tendrils of electricity on either side of its body. Ranger Bletchley, on the other hand, released a brawny Machamp that made a few people in the van scream in fear. The Machamp looked at them inquisitively, then crouched low enough for it to not bust through the roof of the van.

A second later there was the sound of someone trying to slide open the crumpled van door. It seemed like it was jammed, because there was a shout of frustration from outside before there finally was some progress.

As soon as the door opened, there was a sharp electric zap from Rotom that flew towards the Rocket Grunt and pulverized their muscles. There was a soft cry of pain as every muscle was practically pulled, the grunt toppling over and falling to the ground.

Miles quickly robbed the grunt off his pokéballs and a switchblade that the Rocket had concealed on his wrist. "Alright, look," the ranger said as he looked at Ash and the rest. "I want you to follow ranger Bletchley out of here. I'll hold them off while Bletchley takes you somewhere safe. Do _not_ stray away. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Ash chorused along with the others. He noticed Bletchley give Miles a short nod before motioning for his Machamp to smash the windshield in front of them so that they could escape.

"Alright, let's go!"

Ash nodded, following the ranger without a second to lose. The last thing he saw of ranger Miles was him releasing a massive Zangoose and a green-and-white pokémon with blades for arms.

"Quickly!" the ranger urged. His Machamp picked up a few of their group that were lagging behind, ignoring their yelps of surprise as they were lifted off the ground by the burly fighting-type. Ash kept glancing at his pokédex every now and then. Kratos's pokéball was still at the Pokécenter, which was a good thing. The boy prayed for Erika and the rest to take down the Rockets as quickly as possible – the sooner he got to the Scyther, the better.

The further they walked away from their toppled van, the sounds of police sirens became clearer. It came as a relief that the police force had responded to the scene quickly. It shouldn't have been surprising, especially since the sirens were coming from around a thick pillar of smoke that briskly ascended into the sky around the centre of Celadon, where the famous departmental store was located.

As they turned around the corner, Ash saw the unmistakeable shape of a quartet of Rocket grunts, each sporting a pokémon of their own. It didn't come as a surprise when they snapped out of their daydreams and glared angrily at them. "This is a Rocket raid," one of them shouted. "Recall your pokémon and you won't be killed!"

"Machamp," Bletchley said. "Attack!"

The Rocket grunts barely had time to comprehend anything before Machamp lunged into action. It smashed one of its four fists into a grunt's torso, sending the criminal flying in a straight line before falling in a crumpled heap. The second grunt was taken out by a Karate Chop to the chest that knocked him out cold. A third tried to run, but the ranger's Machamp leapt in front of the fleeing grunt and roundhouse-kicked him into an lamppost.

The bravest or stupidest of the four took out a baton and smacked at the Machamp's neck, but the fighting-type managed to catch it with one of its hands. Enraged, the grunt quickly pressed a button on the side, and Machamp grimaced and grunted as sparks of current poured out of the electric baton, but that only seemed to anger the pokémon. There was a sharp _SNAP_! as the baton was broken in half, before the Machamp wrapped its catcher's mitts sized hands around the Rockets torso. A primal scream of rage escaped the pokémon's mouth as it slammed the grunt into the pavement, knocking him out.

The scene was absolutely brutal and mesmerising at the same time. For a moment, Ash was distracted by the power Ranger Bletchley's Machamp displayed. Even though it was pulling its punches in order to not kill any Rockets, Ash knew that it was strong enough to match an ACE.

Ash continued following the ranger as quickly as possible. Streams of citizens passed them, expressions of fear and shock on their faces as the continuously glanced back every passing second. Ash tripped over someone once, but a Celadon Gym trainer next to him picked him up before he could hit the hot asphalt.

The black smoke was getting thicker by the minute, making Ash frown. Were they heading to the epicentre—

"Gym trainers, the League needs your help," Bletchley said after a second. "Release your pokémon, and let's go. We need to contain and incapacitate the Rockets in this area."

Then he looked at Ash. "As for you, I need you to follow the rest of the civilians away. Keep a pokémon by your side for protection in case you encounter any Rocket grunts, and find cover. You—"

"I can help," Ash blurted out. The ranger raised an eyebrow.

"Look, kid, this is League business. You'll only get in the way—"

"I can be of some use!" Ash interjected angrily. Why would no one take him seriously? "My pokémon are more than capable of handling Team Rocket. I was there at Mt Moon when they attacked, I was there when they blew up the St Anne. They're scum; I know I won't be able to sweep the entire squadron, but I'll be able to help as much as I can! I just want to help."

The ranger scowled. "Fine! But you enter the battle zone at your own risk. The League will not be held responsible for any injuries. If you die, you die. Understood?"

As much as the prospect of dying scared him, Ash nodded. Even a small contribution would be a step to ridding the world of Team Rocket.

"Get into pairs," Bletchley ordered. Ash's blood rushed as he enlarged Saur's and Monferno's pokéballs from his belt. Within seconds, they were out, and the moment he uttered the words "Team Rocket" their eyes narrowed in disgust and anger. "Follow me!"

Despite the adrenaline in his body, Ash couldn't keep his anxiety at bay. His head swivelled in every direction, his eyes focused as he kept a lookout for any Rocket grunts that would try to surprise them. They had yet to encounter one of them. The smoke was getting darker and more irritating, along with the sound of explosions and crashes getting louder.

It was only when the bursts of sound were at a roar that Ash got his first sight of the chaos. It was a warzone – street lamps were uprooted, electric line were strewn on the road, chunks of asphalt flew into the air every now and then and random fires were flaring to life every now and then.

The next thing Ash noted was the presence of people and pokémon alike. In the middle of the street was a large group of battling pokémon. The smoke and violent fires obscured most of them, but Ash could still see most of the havoc.

The most prominent scene was the one in the middle, where a pack of Growlithe were fending off a massive Granbull. The K9 force had surrounded the Granbull, which was thrashing and snapping its massive jaws at its opponent. Far away from the battle, officers were ducking behind police cars, shouting orders to their pokémon to take out the Rocket pokémon.

Most of the police force's pokémon consisted of Growlithe, save for a few, which used Kadabra to create barriers and trap the Rocket pokémon. Not far away from the Granbull, another Growlithe was locked in a stalemate with a vicious Ekans. The serpent had constricted its scaly, flexible body around the cub, but was hissing in pain and struggling to choke the life out of its opponent as the Growlithe had sunk its sharp, electrified teeth into its neck.

It was only when the gym trainers around him gave orders to their pokémon that Ash sprung into action. "Saur, Monferno, go!" Ash ordered. "Don't attack the Growlithe and Kadabra. Saur, tag the Rocket pokémon with Leech Seed! Monferno, hit and run. If they come close to you, use Flamethrower and get away."

With that, they rushed into the warzone, keeping Ash's commands in mind. Thankfully, the friendly pokémon didn't attack them – even though they didn't know they were on the same side, they could differentiate other pokémon from Rocket pokémon due to the sheer bloodlust and rage the latter exuded.

"Kid, stick with me!" Ash looked over to see Ranger Bletchley leap over to him. The boy yelped as the ranger grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and push him to the ground, so that they were protected a police car. "Don't get out of my sight."

Ash nodded. "Where are your pokémon?" Bletchley asked him.

"They're helping out," Ash answered. Realising at that moment that he had no other form of protection, he quickly released his trusty Golduck, Hydrus, as well as Screecher, who crooned in a singsong voice as soon as she was released.

"Hydrus, Screecher, there's a Rocket raid going on." Instantly, Hydrus' gem flashed red with anger, while Screecher narrowed her eyes more in curiosity than anything. "I need you two to keep a lookout for any grunts that are coming our way. Hydrus, I want you to disable every single Rocket you see and—"

"INCOMING!"

Any words that were about to come out died in his mouth by the sound of something slamming into the police car they were hiding behind. For a split-second, Ash frowned in confusion; then the metal frame of the vehicle slammed into him and sent him tumbling in the sky while the car flipped mid-air numerous times before crashing to the ground. Screams escaped his mouth as Ash gained more and more velocity, and he opened his eyes only to see the asphalt road hurtling towards him—

—he suddenly experienced a feeling of weightlessness, as if his stomach tried to splatter on the road and all the air was sucked out of his lungs. His vision blackened for a moment. When his eyes opened, he saw a thin film of red energy coating himself, his arms splayed in front of him as tried to prevent him from hitting the ground, which was a few feet away from his face. He tried to move but couldn't, as if all his muscles had locked in place.

Through the corner of his eye, he saw Hydrus several meters away, his webbed hands pointed at Ash while the jewel glowed furiously as he kept him Disabled in mid-air. The Golduck had saved him.

All of a sudden, a Raticate slammed into Hydrus from behind, knocking the Golduck to the ground. He lost his focus, the sheen of red energy disappearing from around Ash, who babbled as he began falling once again.

Hitting the road made him grunt in pain, but Ash had experienced far worse. But his ears were ringing from when the car had sent him airborne, his head spun, and his vision was shaky. He could see Hydrus battling it out with the Raticate – the Golduck slashed at the rodent with webbed claws, sending tufts of brown fur flying. The Raticate screamed in fury, shaking its arms in anger before spinning around and sinking its teeth into Hydrus' arm. In response, Hydrus blasted it face first with a ray of icy energy, freezing the side of its face. Frost crept up its skin, leaving a shell of ice.

The Raticate let go and leapt back, but before it could retaliate a pulsing sphere of black energy the size of a basketball slammed into its back and knocked it away. Taking advantage of its dazed state, Screecher sped forward, keeping it Disabled with a string of red energy. A blast of boiling water from Hydrus knocked it further into the ground and beat it into submission.

"Ugh…" Ash's stomach felt like someone had rolled it into a ball, but he managed to spit out a few words – he needed some help. "Hydrus…!"

As if on instinct, Hydrus whipped around and looked at his fallen trainer. Ran towards him with eyes wide in panic. An angry quack rose from his mouth, allowing Ash to hear anything besides an unidentifiable buzzing. Hovering above him, Screecher looked on, her face filled with worry.

Hydrus took hold of his arm and swung it around his neck before lifting his trainer up. Ash grimaced; his ankle had twisted, but it was nothing he hadn't felt before. His face was black with soot, marred with scratches. He moved his hand to push a lock of his raven hair behind his ear, only to be surprised as he felt his fingertips touch something thick and wet. He realized he was bleeding.

Now was not the time to think of that. He was injured, in no shape to take on Rockets. They would kill him. Too late he realized that it had been a mistake to come here, and that Bletchley and Erika were right, that this wouldn't be like last time. "Hydrus, I need you to cover me," he said. Ash looked at Screecher with curiosity. He'd heard of some ghost pokémon able to do this, but was unsure whether his Misdreavus could. "Screecher, can you hide in my shadow? Make sure that no one attacks us from behind?"

The Misdreavus cackled before drifting to his shadow. As soon as she touched it, she melted into a pool of black, blending with the darkness caused by his body, and a sliver of ice ran down his spine. Her presence in his shadow seemed to make it pitch black.

"We have to get out of here," he said. "Let's go!"

Ash quickly realized that running brazenly through the middle of the battlefield wasn't a good idea. As soon as he did so, enemy pokémon swarmed at him, determined to bury him under a pile of Rocket pokémon. Thankfully, the police force wasn't slow – a sea of Growlithe lunged ahead, fighting tooth and nail with their opponents. Flames escaped their mouths, burning at the Ekans that dared to sneak through their ranks. A stupidly brave Primeape decided to take them head on, only for it to be buried under a pile of orange-furred fire-pups.

"Hydrus, use Psybeam!" Ash shouted, his eyes wide in fear as an Ekans suddenly plummeted towards him. A beam of multi-coloured energy seeped out of Hydrus' eyes, striking the Ekans straight in the face and blasting it away. It hit the ground like a rag doll and feebly tried to get up, only for Monferno to sink appear out of nowhere and punch it out cold—

—Out of nowhere, Ash felt something grab him by the scruff of his neck and toss him high into the air. Screams escaped his mouth, and he barely hear Hydrus quack in protest. Those few seconds in the air felt like torture; he waited to impact the ground, but instead he landed on something far softer, like thick leather over hard muscles moving constantly.

Ash felt hands tug at his arms and wrap around someone's uniform-clad waist. "Don't let go!" he heard a female voice yell.

"Wha—?" Ash was confused. What the hell was going on?

He opened his eyes to find green hair fill his vision – Officer Jenny? He was sitting on a leather saddle, tied carefully around a massive orange-furred dog. The Arcanine was moving at an incredible speed – not fast enough for him to see as an invisible blur, but certainly quick enough for it to head-butt enemy pokémon and send them flying into debris. On instinct, Ash wrapped his arms tighter around Jenny's waist, as if choking the life out of her.

"How did you get here?!" she shouted over the din of explosions. "Are you blind?!"

"I just wanted to help!" Ash shouted back. He coughed. The smoke was burning his lungs.

She muttered something along the lines of 'wannabe heroes'. "My pokémon," Ash said suddenly. "They're back there!"

"We'll get them later! You're our first priority, kid! You can always catch some more!"

Ash growled, angered by her callous tone. "They're my friends!" he bellowed.

All of a sudden, Jenny's Arcanine skidded to a halt. If it wasn't for his tight grip around her, he would been flung off and crashed into the asphalt, probably crushing his skull. Instead he lurched forward, his head banging into Jenny's back, the officer only wincing as she looked at the danger ahead.

A bloodthirsty Arbok stood in front of them, its venomous fangs bared. It was clear that this was no ordinary Arbok belonging to the average Rocket – it was nearly five meters long, with a massive hood and bright yellow eyes. Its hood was flared wide, the markings on it formed in a way to intimidate even the most fearless opponent. Its canines were several inches long, and as it smashed its tail into the asphalt aggressively, it left a deep groove.

Standing next to it was a short, black creature, with a crown of large red feathers and long, sharp claws – a Weavile. They were among the fastest pokémon in the world, and the most dangerous. It was said that over 60% of pokémon-related deaths in snowy regions were due to Weavile and their underlings, Sneasel. They were vicious cunning beasts, predators of the weak.

"Arcanine," Officer Jenny said, breathing slowly. "Use Flamethrower the second the move. Keep them busy, and don't let them escape out of your sight."

The massive dog bared its fangs, a growl bubbling in the back of its throat.

"Keep your arms tight around me." She spoke to Ash, who was trembling with fear.

"Why?" Ash asked, confused as he saw her lift her right leg and place her foot firmly on her Arcanine's saddle.

"Because we're going to jump."

Ash choked. "What—"

Too late. The second the Weavile had twitched, Arcanine lunged forward using its powerful legs. Using that momentum, Jenny used the saddle as a launching platform to jump away from the ensuing battle, carrying Ash with her. He had a death grip around her waist. The officer twisted mid-air, pulling Ash to her chest so that when she hit the ground he was protected by her body.

As soon as she hit the ground, there was the sound of a pokéball snapping open, and Ash opened his eyes to see a golden-yellow Electabuzz. Its arms spun while Jenny gave it orders.

"Reflect Screen. Watch the kid."

Ash allowed Jenny to pick him up from the ground. Several yards ahead of them, Arcanine was doing a great job at keeping the Weavile and Arbok at bay, even though the monstrous serpent had wrapped itself around the equally huge canine. As a wave of heat washed over Ash as Arcanine bathed its opponents in fire, Jenny spoke to him once again.

"Come on! We've got to get you out of here!"

Ash nodded his head, then broke into a run as he followed Jenny and her Electabuzz out of this mess.

As they passed by the Arbok and Weavile, currently kept busy by Arcanine, Ash felt a stab of fear. His fright intensified the second Weavile escaped from Arcanine's claws and sped towards him, and Jenny put her arm in front of him. Its eyes were red with fury, but it had a wicked grin splayed across its face, its claws shining like cool metal. But its rush was soon broken the second a ball of dark energy slammed into its face and knocked it to the ground. Ash looked to his right to see Screecher, her amber eyes glowing with anger, and he realized that she had caught up by melting into Arcanine's shadow to keep a watch on him.

"Electabuzz, Thunder Punch!" Jenny yelled as Weavile suddenly closed in, already recovered from the Dark Pulse. The weasel hissed as a fist cloaked in electricity smashed into its face, knocking it straight into Arcanine's path. The massive dog laid a Fire Fang around its neck, Arbok still wrapped around it, and didn't let go until the Weavile went limp.

"Good job, Screecher!" Ash praised, ignoring the chill down the back of his neck as the Misdreavus floated towards him and hid one again in his shadow. Grinning, he allowed himself to be hauled along with Jenny and her Electabuzz as they made an escape.

XxXxX

"Screecher, use Shadow Ball!" Ash shouted, ducking under a punch a Rocket member had suddenly thrown his way. They hadn't noticed him until the last second, which was a good thing, because if Electabuzz hadn't taken down the Rocket's Sandslash he would be missing an arm.

The Rocket missed his rage-induced punch. His last words were a yell before a shadowy blob of ghostly plasma slammed into his chest ad knocked him off his feet. He wouldn't wake up for a few more hours.

"Good job, kid, but we need to go," Jenny said. To their left, a friendly Slowbro was battling it out with a Persian, keeping it at bay with psychic waves and then dousing the enraged feline in continuous water attacks.

To their right, a small Abra kept itself busy with a gaggle of Ekans. Unfortunately for the Ekans, it had underestimated its opponent by taking its size into account. Ash watched in amazement as the Abra waved its hands, then coated a crushed car with its psychic powers before burying the Ekans with it. There was no doubt that the snake was now, at the very least, unconscious.

Their path was an anfractuous one, filled with white and black smoke that made Ash's eyes burn and his breathing harsher. Fires sprouted here and there, between debris or crushed cars or when the strewn pokémon battles included fire attacks. At one point a Flamethrower hit them, but Electabuzz's Screen took most of the brunt, so all Ash received was a minor burn.

It hurt like a bitch, but Ash wasn't down for the count.

The Rockets became more and more frenzied as they continued their run, but Electabuzz always took them out with its electricity before they could blink. At one point a Rocket grunt surprised them by jumping in front of them and swinging his baton at Jenny's head. For a fleeting second Ash feared for her, but she ducked down with the grace of a gymnast, then spun around to kick the man in the gut, making him wheeze for breath and drop the baton out of his hand. He'd gotten the punishment he'd wanted to inflict – she smacked him in the midsection and there was a few harsh cracks before he fell to the ground. No doubt he'd broken a few ribs.

"I learnt taekwondo in high school," she told him conversationally. Ash didn't bother responding.

It too four minutes before Ash saw true destruction.

"Oh my Lord," Jenny said, talking more to herself than Ash.

He'd thought Surge's battle against the Rocket executives was godlike.

This was omnipotence at its finest.

There was not a single speck of land that hadn't been weathered down. Blazing cars were scattered amidst the street. Debris littered the ground like grass on a plain. Poles of metal were bent, some shredded into several pieces. Buildings were destroyed and up in flames, demolished to their very foundations.

In the middle of the road, a massive battle, filled with colour and magnificence, was underway. Unlike before, where Rocket pokémon had populated the street, here it was far easier to locate and identify each pokémon. There were a few Rockets and a few police officers surrounding the side-lines, yelling orders and ducking under fire, but four trainers stood out amongst the blue and black.

The easiest one to identify was Erika – all he had to do was look for a woman dressed in colours from neck to toe. The Celadon Gym leader didn't look in pretty good shape – her kimono was tattered, her face was blackened with soot, and her hair was frazzled and drops of sweat beaded her face. Part of her red sash had been ripped apart to stop the blood flow from a deep laceration on her right arm, but apart from that there were no major injuries.

With her was a Venusaur almost as large as Red's. It stood protectively in front of its trainer, roaring and bellowing as it released Solarbeam after Solarbeam. Part of its forest scales were burnt, and the symbiotic tree on its back was a bit frazzled, but it looked okay for the most part. It didn't look like it was going down very soon.

Erika also had the rest of her team out – an Exeggutor, Vileplume, Meganium, Tangrowth and Victreebel. Each looked powerful in their own right – the Exeggutor's expressions weren't dazed or comical but extremely focused, the sign of a well-trained one; the Tangrowth's vines were thicker than the norm, its arms longer, with a deeper shade of blue-green; her Vileplume had petals the size of two dustbin lids; Magnus the Meganium stood tall and proud; and her Victreebel had a perfect bell shape, with teeth a couple inches long and a dark-green leaf connected to a thick and long rope of flexible lignin.

On Erika's right moved Misty, using her flexibility to dance her way out of stray energy beams. Her Starmie floated in front of her, keeping up a Light Screen while releasing icy rays of energy. Her Slowbro used its psychic abilities to keep its opponents at bay, while her Politoed jumped from platform to platform, exuding water blasts or Ice Beams. Ash couldn't see her Octillery, but maybe it was just blending in as an infernal flame.

Engaged in battle with Misty and Erika's pokémon were eight pokémon fighting to kill. Ash recognized Proton's pokémon right away – there was no way he could ever forget his ordeal with the corrupt creatures, both at Mt Moon and St Anne. Proton himself was in the middle of the battlefield, and his smug expression infuriated Ash as he commanded his Ariados, Jolteon, Houndoom and Nidoking.

The other Rocket executive was someone whom he couldn't readily recognize, but he sure did stand out, what with his purple mohawk. The next thing Ash noticed was the look of excitement he wore – as if he'd just won a game at a carnival. He commanded a horde of savage pokémon, all the while adjusting his hair, like he hadn't a care in the world.

His pokémon weren't much – a Weezing, a Hypno, a Golem – but what _really_ caught Ash's eye was the _ginormous_ Steelix that was currently breathing fire at Erika's slew of pokémon. It wasn't something he'd expected a person like that to have. It looked more like Proton's pokémon, ready to pulverize anything in its path.

Politoed jumped onto the side of a building, then leapt off it release a Hydro Pump directly in front of the Steelix's face. Its scream sounded like rocks scraping against metal as its massive head was knocked back, but it was more enraged than hurt as it tracked Politoed land back on the buildings wall. The frog was lucky enough to jump away in time as the Steelix lunged forward with an Iron Head, only to crash into the structure and pulverize it into chunks of concrete.

"Alright, listen up," Officer Jenny told him. "This is the end of the line. I want you to hide somewhere here – there are Rockets swarming the boundaries like gnats, and I don't want you to engage any of them. Don't get caught. If a Rocket finds you, release your pokémon and _run_. Do not stay to give orders – Rockets usually travel in packs during a raid."

"But—!"

"No buts," Jenny scolded. "And on second thought, keep a pokémon by your side; that way, you won't waste a few precious seconds trying to get one out."

Ash nodded tersely, and almost immediately sent out Zeus and Delphi to stand by his side. Delphi already knew about the situation, so Ash wasn't surprised when the Xatu erected a blue barrier in front of him, but the boy had to spend the next thirty seconds debriefing Zeus. It wasn't necessary, because as soon as the Flaaffy looked at the Rockets far ahead on the streets, he grew livid.

"And keep this," Jenny added. Ash was a bit confused as Jenny gave him a short, black stick about eight inches long.

"What's this?"

"It's a baton," she explained. "If someone attacks you, hit them with it."

"But how do I use it—"

She snatched the baton from his hand and scowled. "Just flick it and it'll extend, like this!" she snapped, flicking the baton. The layers inside it were forced out until there was a long, black weapon in her hands. "Don't attack if Rockets swarm you – use it as a last resort. I don't want to find your name among the dead."

Ash gulped, nodding, a gesture that Jenny returned in kind. Looking at her Electabuzz, the police officer pointed straight up at the writhing Steelix and commanded, "Electabuzz, use Focus Blast to cut it down, and remember to keep moving! If you stay in one spot, it'll catch up to you in no time!"

With those words, the Electabuzz took off. The boy watched as the electric-type took huge, quick leaps forward, before launching itself up into the air with its powerful legs, moving in a perfect arc towards its intended target. The Steelix was keeping itself busy with Misty's Octillery and Politoed, its iron hide being weathered down by a continuous barrage of water-based attacks. Still, it kept going on, smashing its tail into the ground and crushing random battling pokémon belonging to both Rockets and the police force that had the misfortune of being in its way.

It was only at the last possible second that the menacing iron serpent saw the incoming yellow projectile. A massive sphere of pale red energy had formed between Electabuzz's palms, its arms behind the back of its head. With a mighty scream, the pokémon threw its muscly arms over its head, launching the sphere with a shockwave. The resulting explosion was deafening – it detonated point-blank in the Steelix's face, its huge head snapping to the side and crashing into the side of the departmental store, crushing several windows and floors.

But that wasn't enough to knock it out – it rose back once again, its large red eyes wide in an apoplectic fit. Just as Jenny's Electabuzz touched the ground, Steelix spat out a spheroid of silvery energy from its maw, smiting Electabuzz before it could blink. When the dust cleared, Electabuzz was kneeling down in the centre of a wife crater. From what Ash could see, its fur was slightly singed, but it was okay enough to jump out of the way of another Flash Cannon.

Watching the action, Ash felt adrenaline kick within him all of a sudden, as if urging him to join the fight, command his team to take down the executives singlehandedly. He could already imagine Delphi swooping down to attack Proton's Ariados while Monferno bathed the purple-haired man's Steelix in a river of fire…

Almost involuntarily, he fished for his pokédex and flipped it open before tapping on the pokéball-tracking feature to check on Kratos. Sure enough, the Scyther's pokéball was still at the Pokécenter. Ash looked up and gazed ahead, squinting, looking at the sooty Pokécenter in the distance. It was only two blocks away…

"No," he told himself firmly. Jenny had ordered him to stay where he was – that the league would catch up to the Rockets sooner or later and recover his missing pokémon. _But I can't afford to lose Kratos_ , he thought to himself worriedly. _It'll only take a few minutes…_ he justified.

Did he want to risk finding himself facing off a Rocket and their pokémon or getting his Scyther back?

Seconds later, Ash found himself running along the debris-filled roads of Celadon City, heading closer and closer to the Pokécenter.

Soon enough, he found himself spotting a Rocket running towards him, a Houndour by her side. Even though Ash was blackened with soot, his red and blue jacket did stand out from the rocky debris.

"Delphi, stop her with Psychic!" Ash ordered. The Xatu flew jumped protectively in front of Ash, spreading her colourful wings as a means to emit psionic waves to hold the girl in place. Her arms snapped to her side and she screamed as she was battered by psychic energy. Her shouts of pain did nothing to make her Houndour to worry about her – after all, Rocket pokémon were not engineered to care, only destroy anything in their path.

Surprisingly, the fire hound managed to duck under Delphi's Drill Peck, and advanced on to snap at Zeus. The Flaaffy simply pulled his arm out of its reach and replied with a powerful Thunderbolt that almost blew it straight into the air. In any case, the Houndour was sent flying straight back, crashing into its trainer's gut and knocking the wind out of her.

"Paralyze the two of them, Zeus," Ash said. He didn't want to use the baton unless necessary, as he didn't want to maim anyone, even if they were a Rocket. Paralysing them was a far more efficient method.

Ash glimpsed as a thin bolt of electricity sputtered from Zeus' woolly mane and coursed through the Rocket's nerves, rendering her immovable. For good measure, the Flaaffy shot a Thunder Wave at the Houndour too – it was unconscious, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Screecher, back in my shadow," he told the little ghost. The Misdreavus trilled, and Ash felt that ghostly chill once again slither down his spine.

"There!" Ash heard someone shriek. To his utter annoyance, he saw a cluster of Rocket grunts glaring angrily at him as their feet began to move. Behind them, Sandshrew and Raticate followed, and Ash looked up just in time to see a Golbat blurring towards him at the sound of a Rocket's whistle.

Ash cursed. "Delphi, take care of the Golbat!"

With a flap of her wings the Xatu lunched herself into the air. The Golbat shrieked at the incoming aerial missile, and tucked in its wings to drop before extending them again to keep itself airborne, avoiding Delphi's Drill Peck, only to freeze as it was encompassed by a shroud of psychic waves. Quickly taking control of the Golbat's mobility, Delphi used tossed it telekinetically into a rising flame burning brightly at crumbled asphalt. All Ash heard was a shriek of anger and pain as the flames engulfed the toxic mammal. A second later it reappeared, it's fur slightly singed from the flames that had licked at it. With an infernal screech, the Rocket pokémon launched itself with its membranous wings, its teeth enlarging as it soared at Delphi to sink its teeth into her and leech off her energy.

The Rockets' shouts brought him back to reality. A bullet of fear ricocheted through his soul before he began to run towards the Pokécenter faster and faster. The Rockets behind him were drawing closer, screaming and yelling at him to stop – as if he was going to comply to their demands, he thought in annoyance.

Up in the sky, the deranged Golbat was in hot pursuit as Delphi let it on a chase in the skies. _Quick!_ he heard Delphi shout into his mind in a loud, broken voice. Ash had no idea how she was able to connect to him while concentrating on avoiding Golbat's gnashing teeth, but he knew that adrenaline could sometimes do wonders.

"Screecher, stop those Rockets!" Ash yelled. With a chirp of acknowledgement, the Misdreavus rushed out of his shadow and floated over to the running Rockets, preparing a massive sphere of dark energy.

The sound of something moving along the gravel caught his attention. He looked down, and he cursed as his eyes widened just as the thick appendage of a Weepinbell wrapped around his ankle and tugged.

Luckily, he broke his fall with his hands, preventing any (more) damage to his face, but in return sprained his wrist. His arms turned to jelly. Agonising pain raced up the length of his arm, and suddenly it felt very to breath, as the Weepinbell dragged him across the road all the while.

Ignoring the pain, Ash turned around in horror to see the Weepinbell getting closer and closer to him. While it looked a bit comical, what with its big, round eyes, he knew the dangers of the carnivorous grass-type. Its pink maw was wide open, allowing him to peer inside the deep blackness, and he could see rows of small, sharp teeth inside as he was pulled closer and closer. To the unaware person, they looked harmless, but Ash had no doubt that as soon as he came within range that the Weepinbell would wrap its maw around him and ignore his screams of pain while its acidic slobber would corrode through him and turn him into human chum.

Zeus lunged at it with a battle cry and smacked it right between the eyes with an Iron Tail, but in vain – the Weepinbell apparently could not feel pain, which was probably due to an overdose of Rocket drugs that resulted in a lot of their pokémon having their sensory nerves and pain receptors destroyed. Zeus bleated angrily, releasing a beam of electricity which made the Weepinbell glare before puking out a gunk of poisonous goo that exploded against the Flaaffy and sent him tumbling.

Fearing for his life, Ash clawed at the vine in an attempt to set himself free, but to no avail. In fact, the Weepinbell took this chance to tie his hands to his ankle, rendering him completely helpless. Ash felt his heart sink – the Weepinbell was simply mere feet away from him. "Delphi!"

Abandoning her post for her trainer, Delphi swooped down and slipped into Aerial Ace before slamming into the Weepinbell, who reflexively loosened its grip around Ash's wrists and leg enough for him to free himself. The Golbat tried to interfere by flying to the battle, but Zeus recovered from his ordeal with the poison and released a bolt of electricity at Golbat by the orb on his tail. It took a single hit for the bat to go unconscious.

"Zeus, help Delphi!" Ash shouted.

It didn't even take a second for him to jump into the fray, and, with Zeus on Delphi's side, the Weepinbell didn't stand a chance. The thick vine on the back of its head shot up and wrapped around Delphi's talons, only for her to slash her wings and slice the appendage into two. Zeus twisted in the air and released a ball of electricity that popped explosively against the Weepinbell, blasting it away. It tried to get back up, only for Delphi to plummet down as her beak began to spin at incredible speeds before slipping into Aerial Ace to up the impact. Her beak ripped into the plant and what looked like sap seeped out of the deep, glaring wound, but of course the Rocket pokémon didn't notice. It tried retaliating by spitting Acids again and again, missing every time, until it was knocked out by Zeus a Mega Punch and Iron Tail later.

"Good job," Ash wheezed. In the distance, he saw Screecher blast a Raticate unconscious – right before a Sandshrew slammed into her and knocked her away. There was no doubt she was strong, but even the Misdreavus couldn't singlehandedly oppose an entire pack of Rockets.

It didn't take long for them to overpower her – after a few seconds of running, Ash ducked down to avoid a barb of poison headed straight for the back of his head. Grimacing, he turned around. Rockets and their pokémon flanked him from all sides, encroaching upon him. Rocket grunts scowled and cracked their knuckles threateningly. Raticate hissed crazily, Sandshrew tittered in anticipation, Golbat screeched in anger, while two Graveler curled their rocky hands into fists.

Ash scowled. There was no escaping this – the odds were not in his favour. Ten pokémon, his team could handle. Fifteen? Fine, with a bit of luck on his side. Twenty-five was a nearly-impossible number.

Unless…

Ash grabbed the forbidden pokéball on his belt and tapped the release button without wasting any time. As soon as his Snorlax popped out, the Rockets collectively backed up. Apparently the presence of a six and a half foot tall creature was enough to scare a bunch of cocky Rockets, even if they and their pokémon collectively outnumbered their targets.

Snorlax frowned for a second. Glanced around, eyeing the Rocket pokémon with mild interest. Then he noticed Ash, and scowled, as if saying, _What do you want?_

"Snorlax," Ash said, "I need you to fend off these pokémon."

Snorlax scoffed.

Ash glared. "We had a deal!" he hissed. "You listen to me, I listen to you. If I get killed, you'll be sent to a day care, or put into storage for the rest of your life—" he lied.

"We outnumber the brat," one of the Rockets suddenly interjected. He'd apparently gathered his wits. "Get him!"

Ash yelped and leapt out of the way of an attacking Raticate. Zeus whipped around and thrust a steely tail in its face to make it back off before dousing it in a burst of electricity. Delphi extended her wings, spewing a wave of psychic energy at several of the other charging rodents to keep them at bay. Screecher leapt in the way of a Shadow Ball to protect an unsuspecting Delphi, but used that to her effect by shrouding herself in a cloak of purplish-black aura, then charged at the Raticate to execute a perfect Payback, knocking it out cold.

Another sea of Rocket pokémon swarmed Ash on his team. Without a second to lose, Ash grabbed the baton Jenny had given him and swung it wildly at a Raticate, smacking one right across its face. The rodent was thrown to the side, but recovered almost instantaneously, and seemed angry rather than hurt. Thankfully, the time it took to snarl in rage was enough for Zeus to crash into its right flank with a cocoon of electricity around him.

The sound of a loud boom caught Ash's attention. Looking to his right, Ash saw Snorlax wrestling with the two Graveler the Rockets had. One of them was continuously pounding Snorlax, who had his claws locked with the other Graveler's hands. Then, all of a sudden, a bright orange ball flickered to life in his mouth, before exploding forth in a thick beam of energy to tore into the Graveler's hide and blew it away. With that one out of its way, Snorlax turned around and drove a Mega Punch between the other's eyes. The Graveler stumbled, dazed.

Graveler Number One, who had been smote with a Hyper Beam, bellowed angrily as it got back up. Its arms failed wildly before it quickly curled into a ball, then rolling at Snorlax. It cared nothing for the Sandshrew it crushed as it continued on its path, and slammed into Snorlax's stomach making the normal-type grunt in pain. Snorlax wrapped his thick arms around the Graveler – who was still rolling – until they both skidded to a halt, at which point the rock-type was simply digging unto the asphalt. With a mighty roar, Snorlax raised Graveler into the air, then threw it down with the brute force it carried.

The Graveler uncurled, a bit dizzy, but rose back up and scowled once more. But the second it tried to move, it stopped, as if frozen still – and Ash saw Screecher holding it in place with Psywave. Taking advantage of this moment, Snorlax leapt into the air, curled into a cannonball, and developed a silvery glow, then slammed into the target with his heavy body. The Heavy Slam was enough to leave it spread-eagled and unconscious.

The second Graveler was in a one-sided fight with Zeus. The Flaaffy was quick on his feet, much faster than the slow boulder, and was even speedier with the help of Agility. Ash could see the rage building within the Graveler as it was hit by Iron Tail after Iron Tail, while trying its best to swipe at Zeus. Eventually it got so angry that it roared, then jumped into the air and landed hard on the ground.

The Magnitude that followed was devastating. The entire ground heaved from the epicentre, then exploded upwards. Chunks of asphalt, dirt and rocks flew up in the air and rained down upon everyone. Ash was thrown off balance by the miniature earthquake, landing hard on the ground, and he shielded himself to stop the rocks, but they never came. Up in the air, Delphi was calmly using her psychic powers to stop any projectiles above him.

Zeus came to his senses just in time to see a rocky fist hurtling towards him. It beaned him right between his eyes, knocking his head back to the obliterated ground. On instinct, Zeus let loose a bolt of electricity. Graveler flinched and drew back on reflex, as if forgetting that it was immune to electricity. It was only a second after the Thunderbolt fizzled out around its body that it realized its folly and then raised its arms to produce a large ball of chunky rocks out or nothing.

It threw the Rock Blast at Zeus, but the Flaaffy simply leapt out of the way, the ball of stone exploding against the ground where Zeus had previously been. With an angry bleat, the electric-type blitzed over to his opponent, leaping onto the pokémon's shoulder and then smacking it in the back of its head with an Iron Tail. The Graveler stumbled forward, bellowing in anger, whipping around to smack at Zeus, who used the thick, rocky arm as a platform to jump at this opponent and attack with another Iron Tail.

A split-second later two metallic wings crashed into its back and sent it forward, straight within Screecher's reach. Delphi flew away before the Graveler could reach for her – the Xatu then teleported to Ash's side, protecting him from a Sandshrew's massive claws. The ground-type mouse was double the size of a normal Sandshrew, and short spines were protruding out of its back. Still, a Shadow Ball was enough to push it away, and a gust of ghostly wind knocked it unconscious.

Screecher allowed herself to be hit by a Rock Blast – she was teetering on the edge of unconsciousness, but had enough fight in her to stay conscious for a few moments. The Misdreavus executed a Payback attack, blasting the living boulder away, the Graveler crashing into the ground and lying out cold on a heap of Raticate and Sandshrew.

Ash grinned. Now all—

A cacophony of hisses sounded above him, and he ducked just in time to avoid the snapping jaws of a group of Golbat. One of them managed to sink its teeth into his hat, taking the clothing with it and shredding it into pieces. Ash felt angry at the loss of it, but it was better to lose a hat than have his decapitated head trapped the massive jaws of a Golbat.

The only remains of his cap were a few pieces of red cloth, nothing else. The Golbat, enraged at not having their prey, screeched collectively before spreading out and then swooping down at Ash and his team.

Screecher immediately flew up and prepared a Dark Pulse, but before she could fire it a Golbat sank its teeth into the little ghost's neck. The Misdreavus' eyes widened in shock and pain as she was wrangled in the Golbat's grip like a rag doll. A few seconds later, Screecher went limp and the Bite attack rendered her unconscious.

Ash felt his heart sink as the Golbat let go and Screecher plummeted to the ground. He wanted to recall her, but with the Golbat flying towards him, he had no choice but to cower and duck.

Zeus managed to strike down a few with electric attacks, then got another by using Snorlax's shoulder as a platform to launch himself high into the air, cloaked in electricity. His aim was true – the Wild Charge attack shocked the Golbat out of its flight as Zeus crashed into it. As the pair of them fell to the ground, Ash could see the Golbat writhing against Zeus' hold, but a few Thunderbolts later its eyes rolled into the back of its head.

The Golbat flew at him like bloodthirsty vampires. He ducked down into a foetal position, and Delphi stood guard above him, but the swarm of bats managed to get in a few licks and scratches. Blood trickled down his arms from the deep gouges left by their claws. A daring Golbat swept down at him for another shot, but Ash, already angry at his predicament, grabbed for the baton Jenny had left him and swiped it at the mammal. He'd hit it so hard that the stick smashed into its left wing, cracking a bone and rendering it helpless on the ground, allowing Zeus to finish the job with an Iron Tail to the head.

Snorlax, with a primal roar of rage, razed the air with a Hyper Beam, knocking several Golbat to the ground like missiles striking fighter jets in the air. The Golbat sank to the ground like stones in water, and when they tried to get back up a blast of psionic energy bombarded them away.

Ash got up from the ground. His arms hurt like hell, but he was much better than he anticipated. Around him, Raticate, Sandshrew and Golbat lay flattened on the ground. The few Rocket pokémon that did have the strength to move quickly scurried away in fear of being crushed like their comrades.

Ash didn't care. They were already on the verge of losing consciousness, and would inevitably succumb to their injuries. His team didn't have to exert any more of their resources to cripple the enemy pokémon.

A yelp caught Ash's attention. He turned around to see a thin lance of electricity crackle from Zeus' woolly mane and strike a fleeing Rocket grunt. The grunt crumpled to the ground, twitching and hissing in pain. Delphi was keeping two others in a psychic lock before she twitched and their skulls collided with a sickening thunk and they fell unconscious.

"Good work," Ash murmured. He looked at Snorlax, whose upper lip was curled in a snarl. "Thank you, Snorlax."

The behemoth sniffed and turned away.

"Let's go, guys. We need to find K—" All of a sudden, his legs began to turn to jelly. His knees shook and he lost balance, but Delphi teleported next to him and gave him something to lean on. Looking down, he saw a toxic barb sticking out of the back of his calf. His heart raced.

"Oh, crap," Ash mumbled. He could feel the poison slowly coursing through his blood. Everything was turning numb, and— was his vision blurring at the edges? His arms gave way and he landed hard on the ground. The adrenaline must've made him not feel the toxic spike pierce his skin.

"Oh no, no, no, no," Ash mumbled. He didn't dare touch the barb.

He looked at Delphi. "Delphi, remove the barb!" he pleaded. His words slurred at the end, but he didn't care. Nodding, her eyes turned blue and she raised her wings, enveloping the poisonous barb in a blue glow. The barb was slowly ripped out of his leg.

It pricked a bit as she pulled it out psychically. There was a small hole in his skin, a dot of blood, but nothing too serious. Still, it would be enough to kill him slowly.

He unzipped his backpack hastily, cursing as he fumbled with it for a few seconds. His hands were shaking as he searched for an antidote in his bag. He'd never tried it on himself before, so he didn't exactly know how it would feel.

Thankfully, he found one a few seconds later. He shook the can in his hands firmly before hovering the nozzle over the wound. Then, he pressed on it, and hissed as he sprayed the antidote over the poisoned area. It was ten times worse than applying alcohol on an open wound. It was a wonder he didn't pass out from the pain.

At least it was better that slowly dying. Instantly, his leg was able to feel once again. He no longer felt weak. There was still a certain numbness around the pinprick, but it was much better than he could've asked for.

After wrapping some gauze around his calf, Ash stood up. He winced as pain stung his right leg, but readjusted his stance so that there was no discernible pressure. He looked at his team and motioned them to follow him. "Let's go."

He recalled Screecher (whose form had been lying on the ground in exhaustion) before limping away towards the Pokécenter. Not too far away, the sound of battle echoed and rang through his ears, interrupted by roars and screams occasionally. Even though he kept his eyes focused on the red and white building ahead, be could still see the writhing form of Steelix screeching and spitting Hyper Beams carelessly. Attacks bombarded its steely hide and it's spiky tail dug into the ground as it dragged it across the already destroyed streets.

Ash trudged on. The Pokécenter was just a few minutes ahead. He was sure that he could easily take down the numerous Rocket grunts inside, no matter the odds. He had faith in his pokémon, and they would heed his call if he needed help. If he was lucky, the police force would've already taken care of the situation and apprehend all Rockets, allowing him to collect Kratos' pokéball without any dispute.

It was then, as he was thinking this, that all hell broke loose.

The second he thought something was wrong was when he saw several Rocket grunts escaping through the front door. Then he saw a policewoman, alongside her Abra, teleporting outside with a group of battered and bruised hostages. Screams escaped their throats. The fleeing Rockets looked equally frightened, some looking back with shocked eyes. One of them tripped and fell, wailing in horror and curling into a ball to protect himself from something.

The Pokécenter exploded.

The loudest sound he'd ever experienced the entire day split the sky. Wooden splinters and chunks of concrete blew through the air and littered the ground for hundreds of feet. The blast wave threw Ash and his pokémon off their feet, and intense heat washed over them. Ash yelled as he landed directly on top of Snorlax. The detonation happened so suddenly that his entire world went black.

XxXxX

When he came to a minute later, Ash's body hurt and his ears rang, but he pushed himself off the ground. His arms hurt, and Snorlax angrily pushed the trainer off him. It was then that he looked around and saw the destruction.

Fires burned from the wreckage of the building. His vision was blurring slightly – from the heat, he presumed. In the centre of the Pokécenter he saw a single orb rolling out from the debris. It was an Electrode, its eyes closed from unconsciousness. A few feet away from it lay the burning husk of a human, their black jumpsuit melting into their body.

Ash felt his heart sink. Presumably, a Rocket grunt had recklessly ordered their Electrode to detonate, resulting in the destruction of the Pokécenter, but he didn't care for that. Had Kratos' pokéball also perished in the fires?

He didn't want to think about that. To distract himself, he began searching for Zeus and Delphi, who were currently missing.

He found Zeus soon enough buried under a pile of rubble, his legs sticking out. His body was covered in soot and his mane was singed. Ash was traumatised as he dug Zeus out of the heap of debris, because not a metre away from him was a young woman laying on the ground lifelessly, a stick of thick metal, that was embedded into concrete, impaled through her chest.

He recalled Zeus with a sob after it was clear that the Flaaffy was unconscious. A split-second later, he heard a harsh pop, and he whipped around in fear – only to see Delphi standing there, looking far better than anyone else. She had presumably Teleported away to save herself from the explosion, and Ash couldn't help but resent her slightly for leaving him and his friends behind.

Ash was honestly surprised that he hadn't been killed by now, but he quit his musings when Snorlax stumbled towards him. The normal-type was scowling, flexing his claws. "What?" Ash couldn't help but snap. He wasn't feeling particularly happy at the moment, what with losing Kratos and not having three of his pokémon by his side.

Snorlax growled in response. Ash sighed. "Sorry. I'm not feeling well at the moment," he mumbled, holding his aching forehead.

He looked around, taking in the destruction once again. "We're going to need to help right now. Delphi, I want you to search this area for any injured civilians. If you find them, Teleport them away to a safe area – it doesn't matter if they're…dead." Ash swallowed, then took out a few potions and began spraying them over Delphi's wounds. "If you see any Rockets, knock them unconscious and then Teleport them away too. We can't have rogues fleeing away like the cowards the are. Once you're done, come straight back to me. Understood?"

Delphi nodded. Ash turned to Snorlax. "Snorlax…I need you to come with me to the warzone," he said, gesturing to where Erika and Misty were battling Rocket executives. "We need to help them as much as we can. Even a little help can mean a lot. Are you with me?"

Snorlax stiffened, and Ash scowled. "We had a deal," he reminded. Snorlax glowered at that, but nodded curtly, giving Ash enough satisfaction to alleviate his headache. "Good. Delphi, get onto it. Now."

Delphi vanished. With his hand, Ash motioned for Snorlax to follow him. He looked like he wanted to snap a biting retort, but Snorlax simply complied.

Walking through the blast radius was like avoiding a minefield. Blocks of concrete and debris littered the ground. Heat attacked Ash from all sides, and fires sprung to life every now and then, dancing with the hot breeze. There were very few people he encountered, and he tried his best to not meet their lifeless eyes with his own.

When Ash first saw the alive man, he was grotesque-looking. His skin and clothes, which hadn't been burned off, we're charred black, and most of his hair was singed off his head. His skin had blistered and hot blood oozed onto the dusty ground. The scarlet insignia on his chest was covered in so much soot that Ash almost missed it.

"He's Rocket," Ash muttered. It was hard to figure out the Rocket's age, but from what he could get gather by his frame and height Ash guessed he was only a few years older than Ash – probably seventeen, twenty at the most. Ash felt remorse for him, for making such a choice and going down this bad a path. And even though he was a Rocket, he needed to help him.

Without a second thought Ash emptied his bag off burn heals and quickly began spraying it all over the Rocket. He was barely conscious, his only sign of life being harsh breaths, but as soon as Ash began healing him his eyelids flitted open.

He looked at Ash through half-lidded eyes. "D-Don't…" he croaked.

The Rocket looked at him less in fear than in resignation. In his condition he probably welcomed death. Not that Ash was going to let him die.

As soon as he was doused entirely in burn heals, Ash took out his flask and popped it open before placing it on the Rocket's lips. From the way the Rocket eagerly chugged down the water, Ash figured he relished it.

Ash wasn't a prodigy in first-aid, but he was proud at how well he'd managed to somewhat stabilise the Rocket. There was nothing else he could do here except for pray that no one skipped this area. "There," Ash said, after Snorlax was ordered to clear out the debris around him so that the paramedics wouldn't mistake him for a pile of rubble. "They'll come to get you now. _Don't_ move."

The Rocket didn't, either from obedience or pain and fatigue.

The crepitation of the surrounding flames began to slowly fade into the background, while the sound of explosions and objects crashing got louder. The shouts of several people blended into one, as if a group of people trying to talk over one another. As Ash looked straight ahead, he saw a bolt of lightning split the sky, followed by a shrill shriek of pain and a roar of anger.

After weaving around a burning building, Ash finally made it to the site where the battle against the Rocket Executives was taking place. The scene was devastating. A few of both Rockets and members of the police force lay on the ground lifelessly. Some pokémon were dead, too – a young Arcanine was breathing quickly and heavily as blood gushed out of several wounds, forming a pool or red around it. The entire display was disgusting and nauseating, even worse than what he'd seen back at the Pokécenter.

The few people still going strong were three Rocket grunts, the two executives, Erika, Misty, Jenny and a young kid in blue, his police badge pinned to his left breast pocket. Jenny and her underling were battling it off with the three grunts, who surprisingly had stronger pokémon than expected, as if they were just a rank or two below the executives. Jenny's Electabuzz was firing beams of electricity through its fists, leaping from here to there to fend off the grunts' three pokémon – a vile Muk, a menacing Magmar and a large Tauros – along with her Arcanine, who seemed to have won the battle from earlier. The newly-recruited cop's Mistermime was putting up barriers around its trainer and Jenny to save them from stray attacks.

Unfortunately, Erika and Misty were not faring too well. Ash immediately realized that Erika's Meganium, Tangrowth and Victreebel were missing, which most probably meant that they were out of commission. On Misty's side, she only had her Octillery, Slowbro and Politoed with her. Without her Starmie, Misty seemed to lack the confidence and strength she normally had; now, she seemed tired, defeated, and was angrily giving out commands without thinking them through.

Proton was simply missing his Jolteon, but he also had the Weavile from before, who seemed to have escaped, while the purple-mohawk executive had all of his pokémon still with him. Ash grit his teeth as soon as he saw him flash a smug grin every now and then, as if smiling simply to infuriate everyone around him. He was pissed and wanted to punch the Rocket in the face.

"Rock Blast!" the purple-haired said. His Golem bellowed, forming balls of stone in its hands before tossing them wildly in every direction. Misty's Octillery managed to destroy all four of them in under three seconds with precise Hydro Pumps.

"Snorlax," Ash ordered. "Use Giga Impact on the Tauros, and then fire a Hyper Beam on the Magmar. Go!"

Snorlax hesitated for a second, but the want to battle overpowered his disobedience and away he went. Orange streaks of energy spiralled around his round body while a shroud of purple energy cocooned him. With a roar that caught almost everyone's attention, Snorlax pushed with his legs, leaving behind a blast of wind that almost knocked Ash to the ground as he rushed his target.

The Rocket's Tauros could only let out a sound of surprise before Snorlax slammed into its underside, flipping it over. Its legs flailed as it went airborne, screaming from the pain of the Giga Impact before it crashed into a pile of rubble. Taking advantage of this momentary surprise, Jenny's Electabuzz blasted the enraged bull with a massive Thunderbolt, followed by a Focus Blast that finally knocked it unconscious.

The Rocket Magmar shrieked in anger at the sudden defeat of its comrade before breathing in and then spewing a river of fire. Snorlax, who needed a few seconds to recharge, could only stand as the flames raced towards it, but Officer Jenny's Arcanine leapt in the way and simply basked in the warmth of the Flamethrower, which ironically only served to strengthen it. Magmar took at step back as Arcanine had its energy replenished and strength doubled – but before the canine could lunge Snorlax smote it with a thick, spiralling beam of raw, unfiltered energy. That was the last thing it saw before it was blown away by the sheer force and recalled by its enraged trainer, who immediately fled.

"Yes!" Ash exclaimed. He was proud of Snorlax, not only for listening but for also helping defeat two pokémon.

Jenny turned back and looked at him with shocked, angry, wide eyes. Then they softened and she nodded before turning back to her Arcanine.

"Flamethrower, burn it to cinders!" Jenny screamed, nodding at the lazy Muk. There was only one way to kill Muk, and it was to literally burn them to ashes. Apparently Jenny wanted no sign of its existence to remain.

Arcanine pounced on the Muk and began bathing it in fire. Muk couldn't feel much pain, so Ash didn't feel too bad for it – besides, from the look in its eyes, Ash knew that there as no turning back for the pile of poisonous goo. Snorlax moved to help elsewhere, but before he could take two steps he was attacked by Proton's very large Nidoking.

Snorlax narrowed its eyes the second it was grappled by the Nidoking. Its last memory of the wild was defeating one in the wild. But the second Snorlax landed a Mega Punch he realised that this was no normal Nidoking – this one was much stronger, and on a completely different level. It barely grunted when Snorlax's fist smashed into its chest plate, and proceeded to deliver a Mega Punch of its own. It was so strong that a shockwave was produced from the impact, and Snorlax was blown back several feet away before he finally came to a halt.

Ash gritted his teeth as Proton's Nidoking landed another blow on Snorlax. Ash's pokémon tried to retaliate – he prepared a Hyper Beam in his mouth, then released it, but Nidoking swiftly ducked under the attack. It smirked – _smirked_ , dammit – as Snorlax spent several seconds gaining back his energy, then slammed an Iron Tail into his stomach at the last second, leaving the normal-type gasping for breath.

"Snorlax, use Crunch!" Ash screamed, hoping Snorlax could hear him. Thankfully, he did. Trying to ignore the pain from the Thunder Punch that hit his stomach not a millisecond ago, Snorlax opened his maw wide, allowing his fangs to enlarge and flash a deep shade of black before chomping down on the nape of Nidoking's neck. The poison-type pokémon hissed in pain as Snorlax sunk his fangs into his flesh, drawing some blood, but smacked Snorlax in the back with a Poison Tail to let go.

Ash turned away to glance at Erika's Venusaur, but what he saw instead made him feel fear. Proton was grinning at him from the other end. He'd heard Ash scream, and took pleasure in the fact that Ash was scared of him. Still grinning, Proton whispered something at Ariados and nudged in Ash's direction. The trainer didn't heart the Rocket executive, but he understood him all right.

" _Get him_."

There was a titter of agreement before the arachnid's legs moved and scuttled forward. It sped past Erika's Venusaur, who roar and lashed out with a vine that wrapped around the bug's back leg, but quickly let go when it was struck by the enemy Houndoom's Flamethrower. Without a second to lose, Ash got back on his feet and started running away. That Ariados scared him. It had almost killed him. The scar on the back of his shoulder tingled, reminding him of Mt Moon.

The Ariados was quicker and smarter. A jet of silk shot out from it and wrapped around Ash's ankle, pulling him to the ground like how the Weepinbell had done earlier. Tears burned his eyes as the Ariados made a cackling noise. The worst part was that its compound eyes were jet black, and he couldn't figure out whether the bug even knew what it was doing. If it was pumped with drugs at least Ash could blame them for its insanity.

But before the Ariados could reel him in the strings of silk were snipped into halves. The Ariados hissed angrily and looked up, making Ash glance into the sky too. Speeding towards them was Delphi, and the Xatu looked angry, glaring at Ariados with icy eyes. Another blade of wind escaped from her wings, Proton's Ariados hissing as it scuttled back, the Air Slash striking the ground in front of it instead.

Sensing the distraction, Ash pushed himself up and attempted to resume his escape, but he was pinned down as Ariados let loose another stream of strings from its orifice and pinned him to the ground. Annoyed, Ash tried to break free, but the silk was ridiculously strong, like flexible steel.

Thankfully the arachnid didn't use this opportunity to kill him. Instead it spat barbs of poison in the air, aiming straight for Delphi, who avoided the Poison Sting attack easily by slipping into Aerial Ace. There was a shriek of pain as Delphi crashed into Ariados, her hooked beak piercing into the spider's bulbous abdomen, but Proton's pokémon retaliated by stabbing at the Xatu with its massive stinger. There was a scream of pain from Delphi that made Ash's heart pound wildly against his chest, but she teleported back into the air, circling to find an open spot.

The Ariados hissed before turning its head back at Ash. He grimaced. Its spindly legs moved, the tips of its jointed-limbs clinking against the solid ground, but Delphi quickly moved to protect her trainer and spat a Shadow Ball at Ariados, who quickly jumped back and glared in the sky. It jumped left, then right, to avoid a duo of wind blades, spitting a stream of green venom – Venoshock, he recognized – at Delphi, who winced as some of it slammed into her wing.

Twin black beams of energy shot out of her eyes like lasers, the Night Shade narrowly missing Ariados, who countered with a spiralling beam of coloured energy. The Signal Beam was met with a Shadow Ball, resulting in a burst of smoke that clouded the space between the two pokémon.

The smoke was quickly swept away by a weak gust produced by Delphi's wings, which soon turned into a gale laced with ghostly energy. Grimacing, the Ariados stabbed the ground with its gangly legs, rooting it to the ground so that it wouldn't blown away by the Ominous Wind.

"Quick Drill!" Ash screamed from down below. The sound of his voice distracted Ariados for a second, allowing Delphi to take full advantage of her opportunity. The psychic-type pokémon blurred with the speed of Aerial Ace, her beak spinning the whole time. With the speed behind which the Drill Peck was performed, it was much stronger than usual. There was a scream of pain as Delphi ripped into the Ariados with the Drill Peck, leaving a trickle of blood where the bug had been attacked.

Ariados was enraged. The second Delphi had struck it, the spider's legs flew into action, swiping and slashing at Delphi. The bird was knocked away by the Fury Swipes and flew into the air, but not before she was met by a Cross Poison to the stomach. The Xatu was winded for a moment, but she jumped back, evading a strike from Ariados' stinger, before she leapt back into the air.

Ash clawed at his bondages. The silk was still wrapped around his arm and stuck to the ground. Pain swelled up whenever he tried to break free.

Instead he tried reaching for the survival knife in his backpack. It was hard to reach back and unzip the knapsack, and even harder for him to search for the tool required. A good amount of time was spent searching for knife, his arm twisting and writhing so that he could reach for it. Finally he managed to grasp it between the tips of his fingers and pulled it out without dropping it back in.

"Gotcha." Ash gritted his teeth in triumph. He flipped the blade out, then placed it under the threads of silk and his wrist. The next thirty seconds were gruelling as he slowly tried to slice the silk and free himself. It was annoying, to say the least, but he felt a great deal of satisfaction the moment the switchblade tore through the tough silk and set him free.

Ash glared ahead at the mayhem splayed in front of him. The great arachnid was spitting arrows of poison into the air, where Delphi was twisting and curving to avoid the toxic projectiles. She would've been doing great if it wasn't for the fact that her eyes had gone wide, a streak of disgusting green in the corners as the poison Ariados has secreted was flowing in her bloodstream. Her strength was depleting, however slowly and steadily.

Despite this she continued to go on. She crossed her wings, then slashed outward, producing twin blades of pure air that sliced the sky as they raced down at their target. The Ariados destroyed one by releasing a Solarbeam from the tip of its horn, but screeched and scuttled back after the second dug into its side.

"Aerial Ace!" Ash shouted. A split-second later she disappeared, the only sign of her presence being streaks of white light. The Xatu blurred down to Ariados, who stood firmly in place and pointed its stringer at its foe—

A green barrier expanded from the tip of Ariados' horn a moment before Delphi closed in. There was a sickening crash as the Xatu smashed head-first into the green shield erected. The Protect shook for a second before Delphi bounced off from the collision, landing on the ground in a sprawled heap.

The barrier disapproved a second later, and then Ariados was upon its foe. Ash could only watch in horror as its legs flew into action and ripped Delphi like she was paper—

A mighty roar sounded from afar and Ariados turned around to see Erika's massive Venusaur charging ahead. It must not have seen Delphi, because the grass-type was stomping ahead, waiting to crush Ariados under its huge, clawed feet. Ash fumbled with his belt for a moment – he had to recall Delphi _now_ if he didn't want her to be squished under the Venusaur's weight…

The beam of red light struck Delphi at the last possible second and she was sucked back into her pokéball, missing Venusaur's legs by inches. There was a shriek as Ariados disappeared under a mass of forest scales. The second it was free of Venusaur's weight upon it the Ariados rose slowly, only for it to be crippled by a beam of solar energy. Ariados crashed into a car and rolled over onto its feet, spitting a river of green poison, but Venusaur simply let the toxins wash over it almost harmlessly. The next second, something long and thick and green lashed out; there was the sound of a whip cracking, followed by a loud thud, and then the arachnid was knocked unconscious.

A scream cut the air as Venusaur yelled its victory. Then it was back in battle, taking on Proton's Houndoom and Weavile, who had brutally knocked Exeggutor unconscious.

At the other end of the war zone, Nidoking was fending off Snorlax and Jenny's Arcanine, who seemed to finally have burned the nauseating Muk to cinders. Flames scorched the Nidoking's purple plates, making the beast grimace in pain from the intense heat. Its tail whipped around, meeting Arcanine in the gut, the dog choking as the wind was knocked out of it. But a second later a brilliant beam of orange exploded point-blank in Nidoking's face. Taking advantage of its momentary surprise, Snorlax thrust its glowing fist forward, punting Nidoking to the ground.

Nidoking roared. It pushed itself up with its tail, then flicked it at Arcanine, making the fire-type leap back in reflex to avoid the thick appendage. Snorlax, however, was not so smart – he jumped forward, but was tripped by Nidoking's tail and dropped to the ground.

An Iron Tail smashed into Snorlax's back, making him moan in agony. Nidoking raised its fist with the intent to punch, but Arcanine's flaming jaws wrapped around its muscly arms, tugging the heavy limb to the ground.

There was a scream of pain from Nidoking as Arcanine's flaming teeth continued to sink into the flesh and scorch the thick plates of armour on its body. Its eyes were filled with rage as it pummelled the canine with the other arm to make it let go, but Arcanine wasn't. From the other end, Snorlax suddenly crashed into the Nidoking and the trio of pokémon tumbled to the ground.

Up above, the Steelix snarled. With a screech of pure ire, it raised its enormous tail, then smashed it down at Nidoking, Arcanine and Snorlax.

Arcanine was the first to escape – its jaws were off in a flash and then it leapt away, rushing off back to its trainer. Snorlax was the next notice the length of metal hurtling towards them, and the normal-type yelped in fear before pushing itself off of Nidoking and then rolling off, using its powerful legs to then jump away. Nidoking's eyes opened just in time for Steelix to crush it under the weight of its tail.

"Petrel, you bastard!" Proton roared, more in annoyance than care for his pokémon. "The Nidoking was mine!"

The purple mohawk guy shrugged. "You should've gotten it aw— Hypno, Psybeam!"

Noticing Jenny's Arcanine advancing at them, Petrel's Hypno steadily tracked the beast with trained diligence. A brilliant beam of coloured light shot out of it and clipped the fire-type in the flank. There was a growl of annoyance as the Arcanine stumbled and lost its balance, rolling in the dirt as a result, but the pokémon quickly converted the spin into a Flame Wheel and righted itself before rolling towards Hypno.

With a wave of its hand, the Hypno produced a gleaming shield of emerald energy and reinforced it with Reflect a few seconds before Arcanine crashed into it. There was the sound of something shattering, and Ash turned to see shards of the Reflect barrier fly in all directions and disintegrate slowly. The Hypno frowned, then disappeared the protective barrier before concentrating psychic energy in its skull and head-butting Arcanine's underside. A roar of pain sounded as the pokémon was violently knocked into the air, where it spent several seconds flailing before hitting the ground.

Jenny screamed in frustration. "Electabuzz, take the Hypno. Arcanine, I want you to focus on the Steelix. Comet!"

A yip followed her commands and Arcanine was quickly replaced by Officer Jenny's Electabuzz. The last Ash saw of the electric-type type was of it charging at a focused Hypno with dual fists of electricity, as he was busy taking notice of what Arcanine was up to.

Petrel's Steelix was busy fighting Misty's Slowbro and Politoed, who were both drenching the snake in gallons of water. Its harsh scream sounded like metal rubbing as a pressurized jet of boiling water struck it between its eyes from Politoed's end, while Slowbro emitted a steady stream of flames. Out of the corner of his eye, Ash noticed Arcanine slowly rushing towards Steelix from the other end of the war zone.

As its legs moved, Ash noticed embers lighting its orange and cream fur on fire. Then, the next second, flames sprouted to life, dancing their way along Arcanine's muscly body to envelope it in a thick cloak of swirling fire. As it prepared the Flare Blitz attack, Ash noticed its body begin to shimmer, as if vibrating, and then—

The next second Arcanine had vanished as it took two steps forward. The only thing he heard was the sound of it rushing through the wind, and the only sign of its presence were the flames surrounding and trailing its body. The second it came close to Steelix, it pushed itself up with its powerful limbs, launching itself skywards, where it slammed head-on into the massive iron serpent.

The impact was devastating. With the added speed of Extremespeed, Arcanine's Flare Blitz had been doubled in power and the explosive force was overkill. The cloud of dust and smoke slightly darkened the sky and a shockwave expanded from the point of impact. There was a loud groan as Steelix's overly large head snapped backwards and crashed to the ground, emitting another loud thud.

As the smoke began to slowly clear Ash saw Arcanine's pitiful form slowly plummeting down to the ground. The recoil damage must've been too much for it to handle, but Ash was surprised to see the canine flip in mid-air and land on its feet. Still, he could see its knees shaking, as if it was straining under some weight.

There was a loud groan as the Steelix rolled over for an agonising moment. Then, it slowly rose back up, and Ash finally got a good look at the damage – there was a large dent in the side of its head and it was red hot. If he'd looked deeper, Ash would have noticed the web of cracks slowly expanding where Arcanine had crashed.

Ash was still infuriated to Petrel still smiling pleasantly. "Steelix," he said cheerfully, "Dig!"

Steelix bellowed, the massive, bladed segments of its body rotating as it Dove towards the ground. Mud and asphalt flew into the air it burrowed deeper and deeper, until the only sign of its disappearance was the wide tunnel where it had previously been. The ground shuddered as the Steelix moved within it, it's metal body rubbing against the mud and dirt. Then everything went still.

Ash looked around, his heart thumping in fear. He dared not move. He knew that if he even moved an inch, even as subtly as possible, the Steelix would know. He did his best to calm down and stop himself from trembling. As long as he mimicked a statue, he was safe.

The other trainers did so as well, but the pokémon moved around and continued to attack each other. Vines burst out from under Venusaur's symbiotic plant and wrapped around Weavile's neck, like a chokehold. Proton's Houndoom snarled pounced at Erika's Vileplume, only to be met with a cloud of toxic spores. Ash watched in horror as Hypno teleported away from Electabuzz's Thunderbolt and appeared directly behind Snorlax and cruelly knocked Ash's pokémon out with a Solarbeam to the back.

All Ash could do was watch, so that was what he did. He watched Arcanine bathing itself in fire to replenish itself. Politoed, Slowbro and Octillery were teaming up on Petrel's Weezing and Golem. The rock-type was rolling out of the way of water blasts, while the Weezing shrouded itself in clouds of black smoke to keep itself concealed.

A second later the Golem uncurled and prepared a block of stone a second later, tossing it at Octillery. The Rock Blast sped through the air, but the mollusc took precise aim and blew it into chunks with a Hydro Pump.

It was only when Ash was tracking a particular piece of rock that he realized it was heading directly for Erika. "Erika, watch out!" he warned, breaking into a run at the same time.

The gym leader was distracted by his voice and turned around, looking at him in befuddlement, before realisation dawned across her rapidly-paling face.

Ash yelled as he took a huge leap and slammed into her, sending the two of them tumbling to the ground while the chunk of stone passed straight through where Erika's head would've been.

"Are you okay!?" Ash queried anxiously.

Erika breathed. "Y-Yes, I'm fine," she muttered slightly incoherently. Then she scowled. "What are _you_ doing here, anyway? I asked you to stay behind. But you just _don't_ listen—!"

The earth shook. Erika quietened in an instant.

The rumbling grew further and it was only a few seconds before the ground exploded. Mud and rocks rained down as Steelix shot into the air like a shark jumping out of water to snap at a pelican. The earth heaved, and more and more asphalt began to tear away to make space for Steelix's massive body, which twisted in the air and landed back on the ground with a humongous thud.

A second later the iron snake slithered over to a half-demolished building upon which Politoed had taken its rest on before diving headfirst into it, crushing the remains into blocks of debris and dust. Politoed leapt off the building at the last possible second, but yelped as Petrel's Steelix scorched it with a steady river of fire, engulfing the amphibian in flames. The Steelix growled before twisting its tail and smacking a wave of debris in all directions to hit as many of its opponents as possible – and unfortunately Ash was caught in the middle.

A chunk of calcified stone headed in his direction. He heard Erika scream, but it felt like he was locked in place as he saw a mass of grey head straight towards him, he shielded himself with his eyes, and clenched his teeth as he heard the piece of debris bounce against the destroyed earth, before he felt a heavy weight land on his legs.

Unimaginable pain stabbed his legs and it felt like his bones were ground to dust. His head swam and he felt like he was going to pass out. It was a struggle to even move – his arms shook as he held himself up with his elbows, his eyelids fluttering wildly to blink out the never-ending tears. Warm blood screamed down his legs and mixed with the dust on the ground.

Erika moaned.

Ash cried. The debris had pulverised his legs, and he was unable to move. It seemed like even a little twitch of his legs felt like another knife slicing along them. His bones were broken, he was sure of it – crushed, even – and he realized he was quickly losing feeling in his limbs. What if he became paraplegic?

"A-Ash, you're legs!" Erika yelled, grabbing for his arms. She tugged him in a failed effort to pull him out.

Ash sniffled. "I-I can't f-feel them, Erika," he replied, his voice laced with disbelief and fear. He was having a bad dream, that was all…It was nothing to worry about, not really…

Erika rushed forward and placed her hands under the debris. "We'll save you." She pushed upwards, her face scrunched with tension. He could see her tendons straining against her skin from the effort of trying to lift the stone.

She screamed in frustration. "Come _on_!"

Scorching tears screamed down his face. "I'm sorry, Erika, I should've listened, I—"

"It's alright, it's not your fault," Erika interrupted, putting on a brave smile. Her nails dug into the flesh his arm as she held him, but he didn't care. "We'll get you out of here."

She stood back up and wiped a lone tear out of her eye. Erika took a step forward, clenching her fists, but before she could do anything else a gunshot ripped through the air and she gasped.

A circle of crimson began to slowly expand through the back of her kimono, around a small bullet wound. Blood.

Erika dropped forward and lay sprawled over the debris. Blood began to pool out and soak the stone.

"Oh, what a _pitiful_ sight."

Ash looked up and his heart stopped in fear. Proton was walking lazily, handling his firearm like a gunslinger. A smug grin coated his face. Ash tensed.

Proton's grin widened ever so slightly. "You're the same kid whom I sent Ariados after. I thought you were dead." His tongue flicked out and ran along his curled lips. "No matter. I can always finish you now."

Wet, hot tears bubbled at his eyes as Ash looked at Erika's wounded body. _Please let her not be dead…_

He was pulled out of his thoughts as he felt his cheeks being gripped harshly by a meaty hand. Ash grimaced as he felt blunt nails sink into his skin.

The hand moved his face so that he was staring directly into Proton's, which was but a few inches away. He could smell stale alcohol on his breath. "You're the same kid on the St Anne. The one who decided to wander along during the wee hours and rat us out to Surge." Proton breathed through his nose. "I also remember you from Mt Moon, and those report those insolent whelks gave about their mission at Lavender matches your description. You're lucky you managed to get away, boy. Too bad you couldn't save everybody."

Ash's face twisted in fury. The sound of the glob of phlegm splattering between Proton's eyes was satisfying.

Proton's face scrunched up in disgust and he wiped off the spit with the arms of his jumpsuit. Ash doubled over as a meaty fist slammed into his chest, rendering him incapable to breathe properly. "I'm going to have some fun with you, you little fucker. By the time Team Rocket is done with your insolence, you will be begging for death. You think you know pain? You don't even know what it means. First, I'm going to slice your eyelids in half so that you can't close your eyes as I break your fingers—"

A shriek of fury interrupted whatever horrors Proton was saying. Ash's eyes flicked to the side, and he saw Officer Jenny advancing with a baton in her hand. She raised it, then moved to smack it at—

Proton was faster, and his gun appeared in his hand within a second. Two shots were fired from the firearm and the bullets buried deep into Jenny's shoulder and chest. The officer screamed as blood spurted, but she still continued running, an foot away from Proton, who smirked nastily as he pulled the trigger a couple more times. Crimson liquid burst from every bullet wound. By the time he was done, Jenny was but a bleeding mess on the ground, her chest rising and falling quickly.

"Y-You monster," Ash whispered, horrified.

Proton smiled. "Call me whatever you want, but in the end this is my job. It gets me good money. Now, where was I? Ah, yes. What I said was just something you'll remember as we take you to headquarters. I bet you love surprises, don't you?"

In the distance, Ash saw Steelix writhing as it was bathed in flames and water attacks.

"But first," Proton said, drawing his firearm and pointing it at Ash, "a little tease. It won't hurt just a little sting – I'm just kidding, it hurts like a bitch. Here we go!"

Ash braced himself. Proton's finger hovered over the trigger, and then, _click_ —

Ash closed his eyes. But the bullet never came.

Proton seemed equally dumbfounded. "What the…"

As soon as he said that, a shroud of iridescent blue encapsulated the buff man, locking him into place. Proton's eyes bugged as he strained against the unknown force keeping him statuesque, his teeth gritting as he attempted to speak.

Ash blinked.

Then he looked far ahead. A band of floating pokémon illuminated the skies – psychic-type pokémon, to be specific. Alakazam, Kadabra, Xatu, Espeon, all glowing with psychic powers. Leading them were a band of human psychics, and their leader – the one floating alongside the biggest, meanest Alakazam – was none other than Sabrina.

Saffron had arrived.

"Shit!" Proton hissed through gritted teeth. Even Petrel frowned visibly by the presence of the psychic armada. "Petrel, end this quickly. And get us the _fuck_ out of here!"

As soon as he said that, a menacing Alakazam teleported next to him, alongside Sabrina, whose angry eyes were glowing with power. The next second, Proton screamed as he was lifted into the air, then slammed into the ground right next to Ash. There was a strident crack as soon as the Rocket executive hit the ground, and he was undoubtedly out cold.

Sabrina turned her eyes on Ash, who cringed under her powerful gaze. He could feel an odd, heavy presence around him as she looked at him. Thankfully, the glow in her eyes dulled enough for him to see her irises clearly. "Ash Ketchum," she said pleasantly. "We meet again."

"H-How?"

"We received a call from the CCPD to the League. Naturally, they took their own sweet time to inform us about it." Sabrina scowled. "We would've been here much earlier."

Ash suddenly felt woozy. His arms shook, then gave way, but his fall was stopped by a light psychic presence holding his head aloft. "Alakazam, help him, please," Sabrina said.

Absolutely no time was wasted before the chunk of debris was raised into the air, lifting the weight off his legs. The good part was that he no longer had to strain against anything. The bad part was finally seeing his pulverised legs – they looked abysmal. Blood soaked his jeans, and they looked like they were flattened. And was that… _bone_ sticking out?

"Alakazam, please take them to uptown Celadon City," Sabrina continued, pointing at Erika, Jenny and Ash. "It's safe there."

"But my pokémon—"

"Do not fret," said Sabrina. You will have them with you in no time. Your safety comes first, however, which is why we must make sure you receive attention as quickly as possible."

Ash swallowed, and nodded. His legs didn't hurt that bad now – more like a continuous throb. Maybe Sabrina's Alakazam was distracting him from the pain by keeping his other emotions at the forefront?

"You're a smart kid," Sabrina said, chuckling. In the distance, Ash saw the Steelix bellow as ten psychic pokémon blasted it with continuous barrages of psychic power. That was the last thing he saw as Alakazam teleported Ash away, and he was whisked into the realm of unconsciousness.

XxXxX

 **Trainer : Ash Ketchum**

 **Pokémon In Possession :**

 **Delphi** – Xatu

 **Zeus** – Flaaffy

 **Snorlax**

 **Screecher** – Misdreavus

 **Status Unknown :**

 **Saur** – Ivysaur

 **Hydrus** – Golduck

 **Monferno**

 **Missing :**

 **Kratos** – Scyther

XxXxX

 **Yes, yes, I know, this chapter took _way too much time_. I'm kinda okay with the end result – it's not something I'm proud of, but it's not my worst either. In any case, please leave a review in case there's something you guys like or don't like so that I can focus on that stuff for the next chapter.**

 **The pokémon energy amplifier _does_ mean something – it'll all lead up to something in Johto. You'll just have to wait and keep guessing.**

 **If you guys look carefully there are three of Ash's pokémon with unknown statuses, while Kratos (Scyther) is labelled missing. Does that mean he's gone for good? I guess you'll have to keep reading to find out!**

 **Review responses will be sent out personally this time (in a few days) , so sorry for the folks who enjoy reading my replies in the latter author's note!**

 **As always, thank you for all the love and support. Have a good one!**


	12. Road to Recovery

_Chapter Twelve: Road to Recovery_

 **THE SAFFRON POST**

 ** _Rocket Raid Leaves Celadon in Ruin_**

 _A premeditated terrorist attack on Friday morning resulted in the destruction of South and Central Celadon City and the death of several Celadonians, while Kanto mourns in shock._

 _The attack was said to have occurred at around 1300 hours. Residents of Celadon were startled and shocked as the peaceful city was infiltrated and attacked at several iconic locations such as the Celadon Departmental Store, the Contest Hall, the Pokécenter, and Coronary Street. The military style ambush was said to have been carried out by the nefarious criminal organisation, Team Rocket._

 _Several eyewitnesses spoke about the horrors they faced that day. "It was the worst day of my life," says one mourning husband who does not wish to be named. "They [Team Rocket] snatched my wife away like that," he adds with a snap of his fingers._

 _The entire nation of Kanto is in shock at the surprise terrorist attack that had been carried out at Celadon City. Charles Goodshow, President of the IAPL has offered condolences to those who were caught in the middle of this tragedy, and a crowdfund has been set up in support for the families of the deceased._

 _No official statement by the Indigo League has been made yet, although Elite Bruno…_

XxXxX

Ash didn't bother shutting the door behind him as he limped away. He was too busy getting out of this place as quickly as possible.

The past month had been a nightmare to him. It was excruciatingly painful remembering his time here; having his legs set into place, being drugged as he was fed undiluted Chansey egg, watching through half-lidded eyes as the nurse to his room tried to stop the paparazzi from bursting in, trying to ask him questions in his induced sleep. Those were simply a few bits of what he remembered.

He heard footfalls as he walked along the empty hallway of the Celadon Gym. His heart quickened and his hand went to his six pokéballs as he grit his teeth, expecting a Rocket grunt to assaul—

Instead, a comforting hand rested on his shoulder. His stress alleviated in an instant as he turned around and glanced into the concerned eyes of Misty. "Hey."

"Hello, Ash," she said nervously. "You're leaving already?"

Ash nodded. "Yep. I need to get out of here."

"Good." She sighed. Then he noticed the backpack around her. "I'm coming with you."

Ash squinted in puzzlement. "What? Why?" he asked.

She frowned. "You need someone with you," Misty replied. "You're not fine, Ash. Yes, you've recovered, but you're not ready to head out into the wild alone. You need someone with you."

"No I don't," he protested. He felt annoyance rise up as his forehead creased.

Misty clenched her teeth. "Don't make this harder than it already is, Ash," she warned. "There are still wayward Rockets in the surrounding routes, and they're being brought into Saffron every day. Plus, I already promised Erika that I'd keep an eye on you, and—"

Ash scowled. "Look, I don't need a babysitter—"

He felt something hit his ankle. He was knocked off-balance, and he tumbled to the floor, only for Misty to grab him by his arm and haul him back up. He winced as her nails dug into his skin. She was strong for her age.

"You won't last two seconds without me." Ash stared into her eyes; they were as sharp as daggers, and it felt like they were staring into his soul. "You think you're hot stuff, but you're not. You could barely navigate your way through Celadon without being attack, or nearly killed. You thought you're some prize when you were with Erika, but the second she was down you turned into a dirt sandwich. You think your pokémon are strong? Think again. I could whip you again and again without breaking a sweat."

Tears of anger burned his eyes. The worst part was that this was, in fact, true, to some extent. He hated how helpless he'd been during the Celadon Raid, how sure of himself he thought he was, when in fact he'd been cut down by a single punch when he had faced the executives. It was only the Saffron forces timely arrival that had saved him. And it stung.

Seeing the anger in Ash's eyes, Misty frowned. "Ash, you shouldn't be afraid to admit that you need someone by your side," she murmured. "You can't always think that you have everything in control when, in fact, you don't. You're not invincible. Please? Let me come with you."

Ash stared over her shoulder; he was too angry and embarrassed to actually look her in the eye. "F-Fine," he said.

Misty smiled. "Thank you. Now, do you want to leave now, or wait for a while and then head out?"

His reply was wordless. Ash turned around on his heel, tugged at his backpack's straps, and walked away. There was too much sorrow and death rooted in the streets of Celadon at the moment, more than he could handle.

XxXxX

The first night in the wilderness sucked.

His legs were already stiff by the time he chose a resting spot. He remembered his doctor's words to not stress them too much, but Ash needed a way to distract his mind from thoughts around Celadon. While Chansey egg could do wonders and sped up healing by tenfold, it could still have adverse side effects if the injury returned slowly. It was something Ash didn't want.

Misty didn't say much as they walked, which was good – he still wasn't in the mood to talk, not after what had happened back in Celadon. He didn't want to admit it, but she had been right – he did feel far more comforted with her presence than he would've been with her absence.

But even Misty walking alongside him didn't make things better. What made it worse was the fact that he was missing one member. At first, Ash had been scared that all his pokémon had been lost, but the League worked miracles. The rangers had first rounded up all injured pokémon with devices called 'stylers' – whatever they were – and then transferred _all_ of them to a single storage before scanning each pokémon and transporting them to different storage boxes as per each trainer's ID. It had been a long, tedious process – taking up several whole days for workers to do it manually – but it was an effective way to find out which pokémon belonged to a Rocket and which one didn't.

The sad and horrifying part was that they weren't able to find Kratos. At _all_. His pokéball hadn't even popped up on his pokédex, which had a tracking radius of three miles. Which meant that – bile rose up in his throat as he thought about the possibilities – Kratos' pokéball had either perished in the explosion of the Pokécenter's destruction, or that Team Rocket had successfully managed to take the Scyther back to base.

Ash didn't need to waste even a second for him to decide which was worse.

He tried to distract himself from these haunting thoughts. _Two plus two is four. Four plus four is eight. Sixteen. Thirty-two. Sixty-four. One-twenty-eight._

Ash quickly unpacked his bag and sat down on the grassy ground, holding his right leg, which was still wrapped in a cast. He clutched the cast, as if clenching it would help alleviate the dull ache in his bones. With a sigh, he unhooked his belt and released his pokémon.

This was the first time he was seeing his pokémon in so many weeks. With the destruction of the Pokécenter, his pokémon had stayed in professor Oak's storage, waiting for Ash to be discharged and get them back. The main downside of being admitted in a human hospital was that they banned the entry of any pokémon with the exception of certified healer pokémon such as Chansey, Audino, Kadabra, etc. But Ash didn't care, as long as his pokémon were cared for.

This time, Ash did not smile at the consecutive flashes of light as his pokémon popped out. There were no cries of happiness. No cheerful greeting. Simply dull movement as his pokémon focused on a solemn Ash.

For the sake of his pokémon, Ash tried a brave smile. "Hey, everyone. Long time no see."

His pokémon growled softly. Sensing his distress, Saur slowly crawled forward and nuzzled against his chest.

"Are you guys okay?" Ash said. No response. He sighed.

They must've sensed his distress, as they slowly swarmed him and engulfed him in a hug. First it was Screecher, who floated up into his lap. Then Hydrus, who rested his large head over Ash's and breathed softly. Then Delphi, and Monferno, and Zeus, who surrounded him from all sides, keeping him stable as he tried to fight the tears from running along face. Even Snorlax, who barely cared form him, was growling sadly, and peeking glances at him.

He let his tears fall freely. There was no point in holding it all in – he needed release, and he found it in the comfort of his friends, who were right by him, and who would never leave him. Snot bubbled and his breathing was sharp but his pokémon didn't care about that, they weren't disgusted, the didn't see him as weak, they simply stood there as he wallowed in self-loathing and thought about how he'd failed them and how he'd failed Kratos and how he made a promise to _never_ let them down ever again—

An hour later, Misty draped a blanket over Ash and stared down at him in pity. Dried tears had burned his cheeks but she didn't bother wiping them away. He looked peaceful, far more than he'd been a while ago – maybe it had to do with his pokémon, who were snoring alongside him, equally at peace. Misty sighed – it was time to sleep. She looked at Wartortle, who spat a line of water and put out the campfire, then slipped into her sleeping bag, where she lost consciousness to the sound of steam rising from the scorched wood.

XxXxX

Ash woke up the next morning to the sound of Spearow chirping. He looked to his right, only to be met with a face full of forest scales – Saur? How had— right, he'd fallen asleep buried under his pokémon. He felt his face redden as he wondered whether Misty had heard him ugly-cry last night. That was embarrassing.

He stretched his limbs and looked at his wrist watch. 5:37, which was quite early for him. Within moments he blinked the gunk out of his eyes and searched for his backpack. Misty was sleeping, so he decided to freshen up before she woke up. He grabbed a fresh pair of clothes, and hid behind a cluster of trees before stripping to his boners boxers and then changing into a clean pair. He had a bit of trouble putting his pants on, what with his cast still being there, but he managed to do so.

By the time he returned, Misty was half-awake. Her arms burst out from her sleeping bag as she stretched them. "What time is it?" she called out through a yawn.

"It's ten to six," he told her shortly. Sighing, she returned to her cocoon, only to sigh in frustration and wake up.

Ash yawned. "Wake up, guys," he yelled, clapping his hands vehemently. When they didn't, he frowned and walked over to the cluster of them, shaking them roughly. Hydrus cracked his beak open and quacked in annoyance, and Ash grinned as the duck looked at him with a gimlet eye before giving up and listening to his trainer. That didn't mean he had to like it, and he kept giving Ash dirty looks for the rest of the morning.

Delphi had already woken up – she had taken to resting on a thick branch overhead, looking down upon the rest like a mountain climber looking down upon the populace from the peak of Mt Silver. Ash didn't bother waking Snorlax – there was no point trying to rouse the heavy sleeper right now. He decided to do it later.

As the morning trickled by, Ash's pokémon slowly joined the rest one by one. Monferno was, by far, the sleepiest – he'd been careless with his tail flame and accidentally put a shrub on fire, Misty's Wartortle put it out. While his pokémon warmed up for the rest of the day, Ash began Misty to prepare breakfast for everyone, and by the time they were done the ramen Misty had brought was cooked.

Misty picked a bunch of noodles with her chopsticks and sipped them up. "Are you ready to travel today?" she asked hesitantly.

Ash gave her a puzzled look. "What do you mean?" he asked. "We made a move yesterday."

"That's not what I meant," she said. "What I meant was, are you in the right state to make a move to Fuchsia? You look a little tense," she added.

Ash frowned. "I'm fine."

Misty sighed. "Yeah, you're not."

He scowled. "How the hell would you know whether I'm alright or not?" he snapped. "Why don't you just take your concern and—"

"Don't you dare yell at me, Ketchum," she hissed, rising jerkily from her place and ignoring the ramen spilling from her bowl. "You might be hurting but that does not allow you to treat me like dirt! You're not doing me a favour by allowing me to travel with you. I could walk out on you and let the wild pokémon deal with your sorry butt."

Ash breathed through his nose, but said nothing. Instead, they went through the rest of the morning in silence. By the time they were done packing up, Ash and Misty had made an unspoken agreement to act as if their earlier argument had never happened, and once again began heading towards Fuchsia City.

Ash had vowed to never fail his friends ever again, and so he decided to push his pokémon and himself past their limits. Unfortunately, the afternoon had not presented them with any action (he'd wanted to battle wild pokémon, but the only ones in sight were herds and packs that he did not want to agitate) and the swelteringly hot weather and added to his frustration. Misty had undoubtedly noticed him gritting his teeth every few minutes, and decided to not make small talk after his rather biting reply.

It was only an hour after lunch that Ash began encountering trainers in numbers. At first, he had enjoyed uttering pulverising his opponents, and smiled cockily as he took his cash reward. But quickly enough his arrogance waned; the trainers were getting stronger, and Ash was now beginning to face trainers with four, five, six badges, much to his dismay and ire.

It was when Ash was facing a so-called bug catcher that Ash began to lose his cool – he _never_ lost to a bug catcher, since every last one of them turned out have had freshly-evolved bugs, but this one seemed to be an aspiring master. They had decided on three pokémon each, and Ash was already angry at having his Flaaffy out cold so soon into the match.

"Delphi, Aerial Ace!" Ash screamed. The bird nodded, then disappeared blurrily before swooping down at her opponent with streaks of white light coning around her from the tip of her beak.

"Rock Tomb," ordered the bug catcher. His Heracross tittered and stomped the ground with two feet, causing spires of rock to sprout out of the ground and entomb it. Ash growled in disconcertment as Delphi crashed into the rock with a painful sound. A moment later, the Rock Tomb was blasted open and the Heracross slammed a glowing horn straight into Delphi's midsection, forcing her eyes to bug out in pain. Ash recalled her and switched her pokéball so fast that the movement seemed nearly invisible.

"Monferno, Flamethrower!" yelled Ash as he hurled the pokéball with all his might. Unfortunately, he forgot about the rebound and the pokéball smashed into his funny bone, making him rub his elbow in discomfort as he felt the urge to smile in pain.

A stream of flames escaped Monferno's mouth, but the bug catcher's Heracross shielded itself with an emerald barrier. Scowling, Ash ordered form his pokémon to use Brick Break, which the single horn pokémon met with a Horn Attack. Both pokémon bounced back, although Monferno landed on his feet and skidded to a halt while Heracross landed on its back.

"Flamethrower, then Flame Wheel!" A line of fire blazed towards the Heracross, which had quickly recovered and leapt over the flames that razed the grass. Its translucent wings buzzed as the beetle hovered in the air, tracking Monferno with its small, yellow eyes. Concentrating power in its hands, the bug swiped its arms up jerkily, forcing spires of rock to jut out of the ground. Scowling, Monferno smashed a stone blade up ahead with a thrust of his hand. The Brick Break cut through the rock and it crumbled into fragments, but, taking its chance, the Heracross flew down and stabbed the fire-type in the back with its horn.

Ash winced as his pokémon crash on his neck; Monferno hissed in anger as he was cloaked in dust and dirt, and brushed off a few crumbs of dirt from his shoulder before leaping over Heracross, who had just dived down and aimed its forked horn at him. "Flamethrower!" A shriek sounded as a gout of fire doused Heracross' back, but the beetle flew away, a wisp of smoke trailing from its back as it struggled to stay afloat.

"Earthquake!" ordered the bug catcher. Energy coiled up in his pokémon's two fists, and it grunted before swooping down to strike.

"Jump!" Ash said, a second before the Heracross struck the ground.

Unfortunately, he'd underestimated Heracross' strength – as its fists drove into the ground, the earth heaved, then exploded upwards, sending rock and blocks of earth laced with energy into the air. The terrestrial plates shifted, split open, like a piece of wood being snapped into two. All Ash could see of Monferno was a blazing tail flame being hidden by crumbs and chunks of airborne mud.

Ash himself was knocked off balance, and he got up just in time to see a rare tree crash to the ground with a mighty thud. Uh oh.

"I won," the bug catcher announced, his Heracross flying tiredly in front of him. He grinned.

But he hadn't – there was a scream of anger before the earth burst open and Monferno leapt out, crazed with adrenaline coursing through him. His tail flame had expanded to a monstrous size and flames licked at his fur. He screamed, again, then rushed forward and twisted into a Flame Wheel which was much bigger and whiter than normal.

A fuzzy shriek hissed out of Heracross as Monferno crashed into it an drove the bug-type into a tree. As the Flame Wheel fizzled out, a bolt of white hot fire streamed from his open mouth and washed over the Heracross' carapace.

Ash was about to bite out an order when Monferno let out a tremendous caterwaul and leapt into the air, his fists flying. A beam of energy rippled from Heracross, but Monferno leapt around it and onto a tree, using the hard bark as a platform to launch himself at the single horn pokémon. The Heracross heaved as Monferno landed on its back. It began spinning around, trying to throw the simian off it, but Monferno's grip around the horn was deathly strong as he smashed his free hand into the Heracross' back and scorched him with flames.

Grimacing in pain, the Heracross began spinning faster and faster, nose-diving to the ground, where the both of them crash landed and kicked up a heap of dirt in the process.

Ash stomped. "Monferno, Brick Break!"

He blinked, however, when Monferno crazily launched himself at Heracross, cloaked in fire – that was Flame Charge, not Brick Break. He wasn't obeying Ash at all!

"Heracross, use Hyper Beam!" the bug catcher yelled at a last-ditch attempt to take Monferno out of the battle. A shockwave rippled out as Monferno slammed into Heracross and knocked it straight back, the fire-type backing up from the recoil. A split-second later a brilliant beam of orange energy shot from Heracross' mouth and pinned Monferno in the chest, driving him into the ground where he was knocked unconscious by both the force behind the energy beam and the power it packed.

Ash cursed as he saw Heracross hovering back to its trainer – it looked crippled, but it was still awake, and despite its droopy eyes it flexed its arms. His eyes moved from the pokémon and to the trainer, who was carefully making his way to Ash over the razed field. "I win."

Ash stonily threw a bunch of bills at the other trainer, who gave him a dirty look before shaking his head and walking all. All the while being glared at by Ash, who was close to exploding at the defeat of his pokémon.

Once the teen was out of earshot, Ash yelled in anger. He tossed Monferno's pokéball to the ground, watching it sink halfway into the crumbly mud.

Misty frowned. "Now, Ash, you can't just—"

"I _lost_! To a freaking _bug catcher_!" he screamed. "I hate this!" Ash sank to his knees, defeated and tired. "You were right, I can't do anything. I'm a loser."

Misty sighed and knelt beside him. "Come on, you can't let one loss ruin everything for you," she said. "You just need to train some more—"

"How, Misty?" he said, looking up at her. "My pokémon haven't gotten any stronger. I haven't gotten any stronger. You saw the way that— that Proton kicked me to the ground like I was a baby and tossed my pokémon aside like they were _insects. You saw_."

He tossed a pebble across the field. It clinked against a tree branch. "And now, I've gone and lost Kratos." He sniffled. "I'm horrible…"

"Ash, the fact that you still think about him – after _five weeks,_ even though you barely had him in your possession– tells me that you're not horrible, at all," Misty told him. "In fact, you're one of the nicest people I've ever had the pleasure to encounter. Most trainers would've forgotten about a new pokémon within a few weeks, at most, and would've gotten a new one. Now, you can't just wallow in self-pity and self-hatred. That just makes you pathetic. If you really want to get stronger, you need to let nothing affect you. You've got to be headstrong and not let anything deter you from your goals. If Lance was in the same position as you, would he be crying like you are?"

"He wouldn't lose a friend in the first place," Ash grumbled.

Misty snorted. "You're missing the point. There's nothing you can really do now. You don't know where your Scyther is, or where the grunts who kidnapped him are. You've done everything you could – I saw you file the police report yourself. Why waste time over things you can't change? Instead, focus on training your pokémon. I'm pretty sure you'll do great in the Conference if you really put your heart and soul into it.

"You have talent, Ash," she told him. "But talent means nothing if it isn't backed by hard work. That's the difference! Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."

For some reason, he felt invigorated by her words. "Fine," he said, sounding resigned, but inside he was excited. He jumped back up to his feet. "Let's get going!"

XxXxX

From then on, Ash pushed himself like he'd never done before. Misty's words kept ringing in his head: _talent beats hard work when talent doesn't work hard_. It served as a reminder to keep working hard so to not get a swelled head from easy wins. He kept playing those words again and again as be pushed his pokémon to the limit and even further beyond.

They spent very little time travelling, and instead focused on training their pokémon as much as they could and testing themselves against passing trainers. After all, Ash was in no rush to get to Fuchsia City; Koga was no slouch and Misty had confirmed the rumours of the Venom Nin's inclusion to the Johto Elite Four once the year was up, which was all the more reason for Ash and his team to be as prepared as the could – it wouldn't do to not be their best when facing a potential candidate for the Johto Elite Four.

Unlike the previous gym leaders Ash had faced, the remaining four – Koga, Blaine, Sabrina and Giovanni – would not take him lightly. They would do their best to crush his spirit and make him think he wasn't cut out for the Indigo Conference. And Ash wasn't going to break.

The abysmally hot weather didn't help matters either. It was frequent for Ash to wish for the night to come sooner than it did, and bring the cold wind along with it to soothe his boiling skin. Most of his pokémon echoed his sentiment, but there were some who seemed to enjoy the hot breeze blowing all over them.

With a grimace of envy, Ash stared at Saur, who had just nestled himself between blades of yellow grass and fell into a lazy half-sleep. His best friend seemed to enjoy the scorching heat the most – it was understandable, especially since he was nearing evolution by the days. It would only be a matter of a month or two before the Ivysaur would evolve. It was exciting to see the forest scales darken and thicken, and the bud slowly release sickeningly sweet scents that got thicker and thicker every few days, attracting wild and domesticated pokémon from afar. Unfortunately this meant that Ash could no longer keep Saur outside at night until the pink-red bulb on his back bloomed into the massive flower that rested on the back of Venusaur.

It was also motivating to see Zeus get closer and closer to evolution. Ash had first been worried by the thinning mane of wool, until the pokédex had assured him by informing him about the shedding Flaaffy underwent as they began preparing to transform into Ampharos. Needless to say, it would be sad to see the woolly mane go away. Ash shrugged. Sometimes, sacrifices had to be made.

Another one of his teammates who seemed to be enjoying the summer heat was Snorlax. It wasn't surprising, per se, but it certainly was annoying to see the creature sleep for even longer now that the heat seemed to make the environment cosy for him. Ash didn't really care. It made Snorlax easier to deal with and he was glad to see the frostiness between them slowly thaw out as he spent more time training and socialising with the rest of Ash's friends. He'd even allowed Monferno to sleep over his belly a few days back, which was a huge improvement.

He sighed as he looked at Monferno bounce back up from the ground. Every attempt to help the fire-type get over his Blaze-induced rage ended up with Misty's pokémon having to knock him out. It was, truthfully, extremely frustrating, and had Ash pull his hair out on multiple occasions in despair. Nurse Joy had told him that Monferno would need him to finally get over whatever traumatic event was tormenting the pokémon. But how long would it take? Weeks? Months? Years?

Ash focused on the battle. With a scream of annoyance, Monferno leapt into the air and clawed at Delphi – who instantly flapped her wings and blasted her opponent back to the ground with a gust of wind. Clawing at the air, Monferno blazed the skies with a shaky stream of fire, but Delphi danced around it like it was nothing and waved her wings, creating a wave of psychic energy that split the jet of fire along the length before exploding against Monferno. A cloud of smoke erupted, and Ash saw Monferno pop from the smoke and crash into the ground.

Ash shook his head in pity. Monferno was strong, yes, but he just wasn't as strong as his most powerful friends, and it was honestly frustrating to see him constantly challenge Delphi, Saur and Zeus. He was too wary of Hydrus and Snorlax to actively seek them out – the former had a type-advantage on him and the latter was too big to be confident in front of – and didn't challenge Screecher because he thought too little of her. Not that the Misdreavus minded; if she wasn't so friendly, she would thrash Monferno for seeing her as weak.

If Kratos was here, Ash would've pitted the two of them against each other, both to build Monferno's speed and make Kratos resist fire-type moves.

Ash shook his head. _He's gone. I should focus on what I can change._

He looked up just in time to see Monferno swipe a glowing, open fist at Delphi, who had been caught unaware – but a second later she dematerialised and reappeared behind Monferno, who swiped the Brick Break at thin air. Recovering from the teleportation, the Xatu blasted the fire-type with a shadowy blob that exploded point-blank in Monferno's back and knocked him into the ground where he slumped and breathed pure soil.

Ash got up from his seat and walked over. "Okay, that's enough—"

Suddenly there was a high-pitched screech and an explosion of fire that Made everyone freeze. Ash looked up ahead, eyes wide, as he realised that Monferno had slipped into Blaze once again. An irritated Delphi shrieked as she flew across the sky, wisps of smoke trailing from feathers that had been charred by the flames.

Monferno rose from the ground, his tail blazing with fire as his pupils dilated so much that his blue irises were barely noticeable. Ash could sense the rage and fury radiating from him like waves as his body heaved from harsh breaths.

"Monferno," Ash said, holding his hands out in a placating manner as his furious eyes snapped towards him, "there's no one attacking you. You need to calm d—"

Monferno lunged.

But before he could take another step, Monferno was blasted by a jet of water from the side. There was a harsh noise as the pokémon rocketed away from the force and slammed into a tree before slumping down unconscious. Misty's Octillery lowered its mouth and the Hydro Pump quickly ceased until there were only drops of water leaking from its orifice.

"Recall him," Misty said, walking over to Ash's side. "You can revive him later. I'm not taking the chance of him snapping back into his phase if we wake him up right now."

Ash glared at her as she passed him by and went for her can of soda. He didn't ask for her help, even though it certainly helped. Be begrudgingly recalled Monferno and clipped the sphere to his belt. "Delphi, good job," he called, whistling for her attention. The Xatu's ears pricked and she teleported to his side a moment later. She was getting close to perfect at that.

He fed her a few berries and brushed her feathers as she cooed softly. "I want to go wait by that tree over there, okay? I'll be there in a minute; we'll starting learning Zen Headbutt soon."

 _You mean_ I _will_ , she said in her smooth, feminine tone. Then she was hit by a weak spray of water that came from Hydrus' and Starmie's direction. The jewels on both pokémon flashed angrily; Hydrus quacked.

Ash gave her a look. Delphi still couldn't properly converse telepathically; her words came broken and filled with static, and she'd resorted to feeding off residual psychic energy whenever Starmie and Hydrus practiced their psychic moves. It annoyed them to no end.

"What have I told you about feeding off Hydrus' psychic energy while he's practicing?" he asked her crossly, but his voice was laced with amusement.

She looked down guiltily. Then she flew off to where Ash had told her, but not before shooting Hydrus a look of betrayal.

"Yes, I scolded her, Hydrus," Ash said in exasperation when Hydrus gave him a pointed look. The Golduck hesitated, as if sceptical, but he shrugged and quickly got back to practicing Psychic under Misty's Starmie, who'd sprayed him in the face to grab his attention.

They trained all the way on, into the evening, when Misty and Ash finally decided to set camp. It was right near the woods, which was the perfect place for Delphi to perch. While the Xatu picked a branch to her liking, Misty and Ash set it up as fast as they could and then sat down to take a breather. Ash quickly pried his shoes off his feet and moaned.

Misty giggled as she kicked her own sneakers off. "It feels so nice," she said, wiggling her toes. Ash nodded.

"I'm tired," he groaned. "What are we having for dinner?"

She unzipped her backpack. "I got some instant noodles, and if you're not too sleepy then you can help me make some beef stew along with it. Sounds good?"

"Delicious."

As Ash let the stew simmer, he released his pokémon. They were all tired, so they immediately lumbered off to a corner and waited for him to heal them up and serve them food. He took out his pack of supplies and quickly tended to them.

"Saur, I'm going to have you back in the pokéball after you eat," Ash said. The Ivysaur pouted. "Unless you want to wake up to Butterfree and Beedrill all over your bud, then it's fine by me." Quickly Saur shut up and relented, but not before grumbling about it. Ash sighed.

Once Ash was done with Zeus and the rest, he quickly cracked open a revive capsule and forced the powder down Monferno's throat. He waited for a few minutes for the simian to wake up, and tended to the beef stew till the time.

Ash crawled hesitantly over to Monferno, who groaned and winced. "Hey, buddy," greeted Ash. "Are you alright?"

Monferno growled. Ash sighed and began spraying super potions over all his bruises. The skin around the open wounds began to bubble and slowly knit themselves together. For good measure, Ash slapped a Band-Aid over it and began grooming the little fire-type.

Ash couldn't say he was disappointed with Monferno; after all, he hadn't gone crazy on purpose. As he applied a paste along Monferno's arm, he saw how downtrodden he truly was. Monferno was disappointed in himself for not being able to control himself. Ash scratched his head.

"It's okay Monferno. You'll get through this, alright? Nursery Joy said that you'll pass this phase pretty quickly. You just need time."

He filled the pokémon bowls with food and added some berries in the mix. Needless to say, he got smiles from all around as he went over to the campfire and tended to his own food.

"I'm glad to see that you've started training your pokémon seriously," Misty said. She slurped down another bunch of noodle strings.

"I always did," he snapped. "It's just that I'm now working harder than before. And it's much better. And tiring." Ash sighed.

Misty laughed. "Yeah, you're right on that one. I don't know how many times I've thought about quitting," she confided. "There's a lot to it. I bet you want to quit right now."

"…Maybe," Ash admitted. He drank the noodle broth before serving himself for the second time. "But I'm not going to, though."

Misty nodded. "Good," she said in between bites. "What's your motivation?"

"Huh?"

"What I mean is, what makes you want to not quit? I'm not talking about wanting to win the Conference – that's not a good enough reason to become a good trainer," she said. "What's your driving force? What _really_ pushes you to get stronger and stronger?"

Ash paused. "…I guess it's just not wanting to be like any other ordinary trainer in the world," he said. "And my brother. There are hundreds of thousands of people that decide to become trainers every year. There's a lot of competition, and I don't want to he seen as a common folk. My brother stood out from the rest. I want to stand out, just like him. I don't want to be seen as Ash Ketchum, Red Ketchum's brother. I want to be seen as Ash Ketchum, Pokémon Master."

Ash looked at her and blushed. She was staring at him very intently. "I mean, I, uh, I know that it sounds cheesy," he stammered, "but it's—"

"No, no, I like that," Misty amended, shaking her head. "I wasn't trying to ridicule you or anything for sharing your thoughts. You were honest and that's great!"

"What about you, Misty?" he asked.

She hesitated for a moment; Ash felt that he'd tried to pry too much and so he opened his mouth to apologise, but then she spoke. "It's my sisters," she said. "I want to prove them wrong. They hate me. They think that, because I'm the youngest, I can do nothing."

"They don't _hate_ you," Ash reasoned, feeling slight confused. "I mean, Red and I argue that way all the time. It's just sibling banter—"

"You don't understand." She sighed. "My sisters are narcissists. What you've seen between us? That's a display, because they don't want the world to see them for what they are. My sisters and I despise each other. Ever since my mom passed away and made me inherit the gym. They're just show girls, and they hate that I'm better than them at actually training and battling pokémon, so they've belittled and treated me like dirt, making me feel like crap just because I'm not into looks, or, or getting a bigger bust, stuff like that. When I left to go through the gym circuit, they told me that I'd never pass. That I'd never amount to anything, that I'd never become a water-type master. It's only now that my team's gotten stronger that they finally realised that I'm not a joke. They're scared of me." She snorted. "They should be."

Ash cleared his throat. "Er, sorry."

"It's fine." Misty looked off into the crackling fire. "I need to show them. I'm going to prove them wrong and win the Conference. They'll surely begin respecting me after _that_."

"Not if I beat you to it," Ash interjected, grinning. Misty laughed.

They didn't talk much after that. The pot of stew was quickly emptied once Ash and Misty had eaten to their fill. While Misty recalled her water pokémon, Ash rolled out his and her sleeping bags before washing their teams' empty bowls and stuffing all their equipment in their bag.

Ash was pretty sure he was the only one awake an hour after they'd put out the fire; except for Delphi, who was perched atop a thick tree branch not too far away. Screecher was probably in some _thing_ 's shadow – either that, or the Misdreavus waiting for him to sleep so that she could deprive him of any nightmares that his brain would concoct.

He let the bright screen of his pokédex illuminate his face in the darkness and stared at his team. He looked at the eighth box on the page, depicting a pixilated Scyther. Ash sighed. He wondered if Kratos had truly perished in the explosion, or if one of the Rockets that had escaped taken him. It would be much better if his pokémon had been incinerated in the flames. It would be a painless death, being lost forever as scrambled data, rather than being at the mercy of Team Rocket.

He shut the device off and cleared his mind of any troubling thoughts. He didn't want to sleep having his mind being nagged so much. Ash turned in his sleeping bag. Fatigue claimed him soon enough.

XxXxX

Ash woke up to the sound of hushed whispers.

As he yawned himself awake, the voices became clearer. "Are ya sure?" asked a soft voice, a twang in his words. It sounded scared, and almost whimpering.

The person to whom the voice belonged was slapped. Hard. "We haven't gotten any cash, supplies, or any way to get back to base. This is the best chance we got. Now shut it, or else I'll leave you to the rangers," Ash heard the other person say. It was firm with conviction and carried dangerous undertones.

"But wh-what about them pokémon—?"

"We'll take the kid's pokéballs and bring them to base. At least we'll have a reason to let Miss Ariana let us in."

Then he felt someone's hand slip into his sleeping bag, and he froze as he felt something cold and sharp pressed against his throat. Metal. He quickly realized what it was and opened his eyes. His pupils adjusted to the darkness and he saw a scarred twisted face right above his.

"Sorry I gotta do this, kiddo," said the person. But the smile on his face betrayed his words.

He felt a small incision form as the blade was pressed into his skin—

Feeling a surge of adrenaline, Ash jerked away from the blade so that the flat of it slashed along his skin. Roaring, Ash rolled away in his sleeping back as the man wildly grabbed at him to hold him in place. He missed. Ash started screaming.

"MISTY WAKE UP THERE'S SOMEONE HERE HE'S—"

"Shut the FUCK up!" his attacker yelled – which did not help things. Ash heard the man hurl the trench knife at him. It missed him by a foot and bounced off the ground.

Panicked voices added to the commotion. Misty had probably waken up, judging from the angry scream of rage and fear from afar. The two men were shouting and yelling – Ash began to scramble out of his backpack when he felt a vicious punch to the back that knocked him to the ground.

"You're dead!" the man shouted. Ash looked up and choked on his spit. His eyes were bloodshot as he grabbed Ash by the collar.

Suddenly, the air went cold and the assailant yelled in fright as a shadowy figure formed right in front of him. The mystery creature let out a horrible screech that made the man let go of Ash and grab at his ears. Ash felt like ripping his ears out as the harsh shriek reverberated through the clearing, until it was interrupted by a flash of light.

The sudden brightness allowed Ash to see something printed along their soggy, ragged shirts – a big red 'R'. Dread began to fill him. "MISTY THEY'RE ROCKETS!" he yelled above the growl of the pokémon the man had released.

"Tauros, Zen Headbutt!" the burly Rocket yelled. "Fritz, help me!"

The mammoth of a bull snorted and stomped the ground before charging forward, concentrating psychic energy around its skull. Ash rose to his knees and his head snapped up just in time to see the bullish creature heading for him. With a push of his feet, he rolled to his right at the last possible second and the Tauros had no opportunity to move in his direction. There was a heavy thud as the beast crashed headfirst into a tree trunk and felled it with its skull.

The moonlight was finally enough for Ash to be able to see everything clearly – as clearly as a person could see at night. The ghostly figure – who he identified as Screecher – flew in front of him and engaged the recovering Tauros in battle. Sucking in air, the Misdreavus exhaled to unleash a frigid blast of cold at just as the horned creature charged at her with another Zen Headbutt. The Icy Wind clipped the Tauros in the face; its horns and cheeks were beaded with condensation as a thick streak of frost and snow began to grow where the winds had struck.

Screecher dove into the shadows just as the Tauros neared. As the wild bull pokémon screeched to a halt, the ghost popped back up and struck it between the shoulders with a Shadow Ball. The enraged Tauros was taken by surprise and howled as its front legs gave way, but its knees snapped back in place. It shook the ice off its face and glared into the skies with dilated pupils and glaring eyes before shooting a bolt of electricity from its horns.

Ash looked to his right and scrambled out of the way of a Hyper Beam from the Rockets' Hypno. Just then he heard a wild shriek and saw something feather and tall blur towards the Hypno and crash into its abdomen with a spinning beak. As the Hypno stumbled away from the Drill Peck, Delphi lifted her foe into the air and drove it into the ground.

"Holy shit!" yelled the burly Rocket. "Fritz, grab their bags and get me the hell out of here!"

Ash took notice of the blade lying innocently on the ground. Without thinking twice, he picked it up and hesitated as he stared at the distracted Rocket in fear, his breathing short and harsh. Just as the man turned, Ash tossed the knife at him, regretting it instantly.

The trench knife sank into the Rocket's shoulder with a wet thump. A strangled scream escaped his throat, blood circling around the hilt of the knife, which was sticking out of his arm. "I'm going to _kill_ —"

His next words were scrambled into a yell of pain as a blue glow surrounded the Rocket, courtesy of Delphi. His back bent in pain and his limbs twisted as he was levitated into the air and then thrown back to the ground. As the psychic glow dissipated, froth began to bubble at it lips, but it didn't seem threatening, and so Ash simply walked around him.

The other Rocket seemed to lose spirit by the loss of his companion and looked lost as Delphi, Starmie and Screecher quickly took charge of the battle. The Tauros bellowed angrily and began charging as fast as it could at Starmie. It opened its mouth to collect brilliant white energy, but it was smote in the face with a powerful Hydro Pump that sprayer water in every direction as it splattered against Tauros' forehead. Ash was amazed to see the bull keep charging straight through the Hydro Pump, screaming through the agony of being drenched by pressurized water; but it wasn't strong enough, and by the time it had moved halfway through the stream of water it was already on its knees, heaving and panting as it dug its hooves into the ground to stop itself from being driven back, in vain.

The Tauros struggled to stand back up, but just as it looked like it had regained its strength it was ploughed in its flank by Delphi. Her head drove into its body and a scream escaped the Tauros' throat as it was knocked away by the force of the Aerial Ace. It tumbled across the ground, and halted on its side.

Meanwhile, Screecher was toying with the Hypno – she seemed to be enjoying her battle with the psychic-type pokémon. Ash cringed when Screecher placed a hellish Curse on herself, the ominous red aura engulfing her, then Hypno, who writhed under the attack. Weak Shadow Balls popped explosively against the Cursed Hypno and threw it under a slow, exquisite torture as the shadowy blobs shattered its mental defences and distorted its mind. A Confuse Ray pounded the yellow creature, and soon it was hissing and moaning as its eyes glazed over, its mind scrambled.

It was disturbing to see Screecher cackle maniacally as the Hypno twisted and moaned painfully on the ground. Never had Ash ever seen the Misdreavus behave in such a sadistic manner – he knew she enjoyed prolonging the defeat of her enemies, but seeing it every time made Ash slightly sick. Thankfully, Misty's Starmie put it out of its misery and knocked it out cold.

He glared at the Misdreavus. "You've got to stop doing that," he hissed. He opened his mouth to say more, but he was distracted by the sound of footfalls – the Rocket was making an escape.

But he didn't make it far. Delphi teleported away in a blink and reappeared in the air, flying, carrying the distraught Rocket in a psychic hold. He flailed in the air and yelled in fear as he stared at the ground, which was several feet below him. Ash didn't feel sympathetic.

Delphi wasn't gentle when she let the Rocket down. She abruptly let her psychic hold go, and the grunt fell to the ground in a mangled heap. He'd probably broken an ankle.

"Please, I wasn't gon' do n'un!" he sobbed. Ash glared.

"You tried to kill me!"

"I've called the rangers, they're en route," Misty informed him, looking up from her pokégear. Ash ignored the Rocket's groan. "They'll be here in five. Starmie, get the other one over here."

As the water-type levitated the unconscious Rocket agent to where they were Ash felt vibrations in his jacket's pocket. Frowning, he pulled it out and turned it on. A notification was begging for his attention. As he tapped on it, his eyes nearly popped out.

"No freaking way," he whispered, utterly shocked to the core.

Misty perked up in curiosity. "What?" she prompted.

Ash didn't answer. Instead, he simply gaped as the screen in front of him burned in his mind.

 _ **Name:** Kratos **; Species Name:** ScytherM **); OT:** Ash Ketchum **; ID No.:** 01301 **; Pokéball Distance:** 4 ft. approx. 0 s_

Ash's enraged eyes slowly moved from the screen of his dex to the pair of grunts by his feet. The Rocket who wasn't unconscious stared at him in puzzlement, but his fear didn't wane.

"Wh— What?" he stammered, sounding confused.

"You stole my pokémon!" he screamed, spit flying. The Rocket cringed. "Where is it!?" He jumped the men and grabbed at their pokébelts.

"Ash, what's going on?" Misty asked.

Ash didn't bother answering. Instead, he ripped their belts away and plucked off the pokéballs, which bounced off the ground. His eyes looked crazed as he picked up each sphere and checked the back before tossing it around. It had to be here somewhere, the dex _couldn't_ be wrong—

He almost – _almost_ – looked over the labelled pokéball by his foot. But the glint of an engraved name caught his eye, and he picked it up, revering it, as if it was the largest gemstone in the world. A sob crawled up his throat. On the lower half of the pokéball was the word 'Kratos' engraved in a tiny scrawl.

Tears spilled down Ash's cheeks; he didn't feel embarrassed or ashamed for crying, and held the pokéball close to his chest as tremors wracked his body. He'd thought he'd lost the Scyther forever, believed himself for being the worst trainer in the world, but now he'd gotten him back, and he couldn't wait to let the Scyther out and give him a hug—

Either the gods were looking down upon him, or he was afflicted by a disease of sheer dumb luck. Either way, he was glad – euphoric, even. A massive knot of anxiety loosened in the pit of his stomach and was replaced with a bowling ball of relief and joy. He offered a silent prayer to any higher power that existed and praised the incompetence of Team Rocket before rising and glaring at the grunts. But he couldn't keep the grin off his face.

"Holy shit, you're the luckiest bastard in the world," Misty told him, looking at the pokéball in his hand, held in a death grip. She expected it to be crushed under his fingers and second now with how tight he was palming it.

"Look," the Rocket grunt said, licking his lips, "you got your pokémon; now, _please_ , let me go. I swear I'd n'un to do with it. It was all Jones' idea. I wasn't gon' do n'un! You don' need to send me packin' to the rangers or anythin', I— ah don' think I can make it in jail—"

All of a sudden, two rangers descended into the clearing atop a Pidgeotto and a Fearow. All of a sudden, the Rocket's snivelling, whimpering manner disappeared, and instead, was replaced by a snarl and a frown.

The rangers approached Ash and Misty with flashlights and quickly replaced their flying-types with an Arcanine and Arbok. "Return your pokémon, trainers."

Misty and Ash complied, holding their hands to the side to show that they were unarmed. The Rocket shifted and tried to stand up as Starmie, Delphi and Screecher were recalled, but a hiss and a glare from the Arbok made him cower behind his unconscious partner.

As soon as the pokémon disappear, the rangers visibly relaxed. Their pokémon, however, did not. "So these are the crooks who assaulted you?" one of them asked. Misty replied yes, and the ranger who'd questioned her nodded at his companion. "Arrest them. We'll take them back to base."

The ranger took out a pair of zip-tie handcuffs and locked their wrists and ankles together – not constricted enough to stop blood flow, but enough to make them wince in pain. "Are those their pokémon?" the ranger asked, nodding in the directions of the breathing Hypno and Tauros.

"Yes," Ash said. "My Misdreavus took care of the Hypno and her Starmie took down the Tauros. What will happen to them?"

"As they are Rocket pokémon, we'll first be flushing out all drugs out of their system, followed by a psychological evaluation," the ranger answered. "If they are deemed sane, they will be put through rehabilitation until they are deemed safe enough to be released into the wild, or given to a trainer."

Ash watched as the rangers recalled the Hypno and Tauros, then put the pokéballs in a pair of sealable zipper storage bags. "Alright, Brad, take 'em to the outpost," the head ranger muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. Corporal Brad – somehow – loaded the pair of grunts onto his Fearow, and took off. The other ranger, however, decided to stay back.

"Aren't you leaving too?" Misty asked, as the Fearow disappeared into the night.

The rangers shook his head. "This area is compromised, and I think it's too late for the two of you to take your camp elsewhere. Arcanine and I will be keeping guard if any other Rockets make their way here. You do not need to worry."

Ash barely listened to him, however; he was too busy smiling down at the enlarged pokéball in his hand. He wanted nothing more than to release the Scyther right now and welcome him back and smother him with affection. But he decided against it – he was sleepy, and tired, and the rush of adrenaline was quickly leaving him and making his shoulders sag. Well, as long as his pokémon were safe, he thought to himself.

It took a long time for Ash and Misty to get back to sleep. Even though they were tired, they were feeling the aftereffects of the adrenaline boost, and the eerie quietness, disturbed only by the soft rustling of leaves, certainly didn't help keeping them on the edge. But soon enough, like he always did, Ash drifted off to a deep slumber, this time hypnotised by the periodical hisses that came from the ranger's Arbok.

XxXxX

As the bright light shone down upon them, Ash glanced at his team through squint eyes. "Okay guys, be on your toes," warned Ash, holding Kratos' pokéball in his hand. He spun it on his finger – something which he had mastered after seeing Blue Oak do it so many years ago. "It's been a long time since Kratos was taken away from us. We don't know what must've been done to him. Don't be aggressive; if he attacks, I want you guys to do your best to not hurt him, understood?"

Receiving nods of comprehension, Ash turned and tossed the pokéball far ahead, where it snapped open and released a brilliant beam of red light. Kratos appeared up ahead and memories of the last time he'd seen him washed over Ash. He felt a wave of warmth fizz up his chest, and felt like he was going to tear up.

Kratos, however, did _not_ seem to reciprocate. As Ash took a step towards him, they Scyther crossed his scythed arms out defensively. The bug-type pokémon's eye were red and bloodshot with rage and confusion. Ash noticed the pokémon's already battered and bruised carapace. Subsequently, Ash felt a pang of hurt and anger, but swallowed his emotions and tentatively spoke.

"Kratos, it's me," Ash said, but barely a second after he'd spoken the Scyther shrieked and blitzed forward in a green blur.

As soon as the pokémon moved, Ash was yanked back by a psychic force, and grimaced in pain as he bounced on the ground. Looking up, he saw Kratos swiping wildly as the rest of Ash's team did damage control.

Unfortunately, against the might of his six teammates, Kratos didn't stand a chance. As he Slashed Zeus across the chest, he was grabbed by the arms by a pair of thick, sturdy vines. As he tried to escape he was held strong in a psychic glow. Still he struggled, but once Hydrus Disabled him Kratos froze in place.

"Kratos, hold on!" Ash yelled, bringing the Scyther's focus back on him. He felt the pair of dangerous eyes fall on him, but Ash didn't back down. "It's me, Ash. Don't you remember? Your trainer?"

He rose from the dirt, groaning as his knees creaked. Slowly and carefully, Ash began to make his way towards Kratos, who was breathing heavily while the rest of Ash's pokémon surrounded him. Ash attempted a brave smile. "You've been trapped in your pokéball for five weeks – that's a long time, and we thought you'd been lost to Team Rocket—"

A snarl made his voice sputter and die. At the first sign of aggression, Delphi waved her wing – a brilliant blue barrier came to life in front of her trainer. Ash was a little miffed, but he felt a little relieved when he learned that he was being protected by something.

"Okay, no Team Rocket." Ash winced. "The point is, you're back. We've got you back, Kratos! You're with your pack now – Hydrus, Delphi, Saur – they're all here."

Kratos hesitated when he saw them all standing together. He trembled slightly, perhaps from the cold water Hydrus had drenched him with, but remained still. Ash began to tread closer when it was clear that the Scyther wouldn't attack and held forth an open palm. "Kratos?"

Kratos' mood immediately switched to an overwhelming protectiveness and affection as he came to realise that everything Ash had just said was, in fact, true. The Scyther chittered, his wings moving at incredible speeds. He placed a scythe on Ash's hand and ran it along his palm – it drew a little blood, and made Ash wince, but it was pain that he could bite out.

It was after Ash stuck a Band-Aid over the little cut on his hand that he looked over Kratos – who seemed to be in really bad shape. Ash scowled. His pokémon hadn't manhandled him when he'd been released from the pokéball. As the bruises and bumps on the Scyther's carapace healed, Ash glared at the gouge in Kratos' midsection and the charging Tauros from the previous night flashed in his mind. Clenching his teeth, Ash counted in an attempt to cool down, and popped open a super potion.

"Do you want to take a break for the rest of the day? Or are you ready to train?" Ash asked. He might not have liked the latter very much, but Ash offered Kratos the option anyway. Kratos shrugged his armoured shoulders and looked at the rest of the team.

To Ash's surprise, Hydrus let out a snarl and released an angry quack. "What's going on, Hydrus?" Ash probed, but the Golduck kept glaring at Kratos, who stared back impassively. It was the first time any of his pokémon had ever been aggressive to another so openly. There had always been the tension between Saur and Luna at first, but that had gotten over fairly quickly, and had been more due to Luna's dislike for poison-type pokémon…

After a few moments of assessing the foreign emotions coursing through his mind, Ash had a faint idea of what was going on – of course. Hydrus had never liked Kratos, ever since Ash had traded the Clefairy over to Dawn in exchange for her Scyther. He saw him as a replacement for Luna, and not an actual member of the team. At first Ash had simply disregarded it as Hydrus trying to get over the loss of his teammate. But now it was clear that the Golduck had not yet fully accepted Kratos into the group. Ash had never allowed them to settle their disagreements and had largely ignored it as an obstacle that they would eventually get over.

"Hydrus, Kratos is part of the team now," Ash snapped, drawing the Golduck's attention. His beady red eyes glittered in annoyance. "You can't resent _him_ just because _Luna_ wanted to pursue coordinating with Dawn."

Hydrus chose to disobey him. He quacked noisily and took a step forward, puffing his chest at Kratos, who was simply exuding pride and confidence, something that Hydrus didn't seem to like. The lack of reaction didn't help things either. Another quack, this time sharper and louder and bubbling with challenge. Kratos hissed, but didn't step back – he was too prideful to be seen weaker in front of Hydrus, who didn't take no for an answer, and proceeded to get in the Scyther face. His beak looked like it was going to peck his rival.

Hydrus screeched. Kratos hissed. Then Ash stepped in and separated the two before they tore at each other with no qualms.

" _Enough_!" Ash shouted, glaring to and from his pokémon. "I've had it. Now, you're going to get to training and smile at each other, even if you don't like it. Do you understand?"

Hydrus quacked some gibberish, and that pushed Ash to the edge. But Misty appeared right before he could explode at the water-type.

"What's up?" When Ash explained the situation to her, she smirked. "Oh. Your Scyther's a runt, right? It's pretty common. You'll have to let them fight it out. Your Golduck wants to assert his dominance over Scyther. There's no other way to handle it, unless you want them to bottle it up and pop it open when they're angry enough to kill each other."

Ash glanced nervously at the pair of them – they looked ready to kill each other _right now_. They were all up in each other's faces, and he scowled when he saw the rest of his team crowding eagerly around the two, as if it was a schoolyard fight where everybody was eager to see two kids throw flimsy punches, like they'd never seen a fight before. Unfortunately that made Ash remember the time he'd fought Gary and the front tooth he'd lost. That was not a particular memory he was fond of.

"Fine," Ash snapped. "Hydrus, Kratos – that way," he ordered, pointing away from where they'd set camp. They glared at each other from an inch away, like a pair of boxers at a press conference, but listened to Ash, and stalked to where he was pointing; the rest of the team trailed along eagerly. He didn't know how strong Kratos was – having only have had the Scyther for a few days under his ownership until he'd disappeared – but Ash did know that Hydrus was one of the strongest pokémon on Ash's team, on par with Delphi and Saur, and Zeus only being a little lower. He didn't have to be a seer to know the outcome of the battle, but he did want to see for himself how strong the Scyther really was compared to his strongest.

Hydrus slapped his chest arrogantly and glared across the field, where Kratos was hovering calmly, rolling his shoulders. The rest of Ash's team, and Misty's, gave the two fighters a wide berth to rumble. "Now," Ash yelled, "you're teammates, so I don't want anyone to try to kill the other," he said. He received amused and annoyed expressions when he looked pointedly at Hydrus as he said that.

They squared off against each other. Ash sighed. "Begin!"

Hydrus made the first move. His beak snapped open to a near-180 and released a brilliant blue ray of freezing energy. Swiping his blade to the right, Kratos released a burst of high-powered wind, which crashed into the Ice Beam, and negated it almost immediately.

Hydrus was annoyed at how easily the Vacuum Wave made his attack useless, but didn't let it make him unfocused. He quickly enshrouded himself in a veil of water and propelled himself forward, like a bullet, and began spinning in a corkscrewing motion. For a second, Kratos eyed the Aqua Jet, but then he made a decision and effortlessly conjured copies of himself from thin air. The sight of so many Scyther must've confused Golduck, for the cloak of water shut of and he tumbled to his webbed feet before being circled by twelve perfect copies of his opponent.

All of a sudden one of the Scyther closed in with blurring speed, but slow enough for Hydrus to notice. Quacking in triumphant anger, a blast of boiling water escaped the Golduck's gullet the moment Kratos' arm came swinging down. Ash waited the a shrill shriek of pain to escape Kratos, but it never came – instead, the Scyther exploded to nothingness and left Hydrus confused and annoyed as he stared at where he foe had once been.

Realizing that he'd been tricked, Hydrus whipped around, only to be slashed across the chest with dark energy. His chest hissed where the Night Slash had struck him and negative energy sank into him, shattering his senses. Angry and in pain, Hydrus fired another Scald, but Kratos flew away with mind-numbing speed and the hot water instead struck a clone that had conveniently circled right in front of him.

Ash no longer watched the battle with annoyance. Instead, he was captured by the way Kratos danced and kept tricking Hydrus, not once, not twice, but again and again. At this rate he wouldn't be surprised if the Scyther actually won. He was making up for his lack of strength compared to Hydrus with his brilliant speed. He was genuinely impressed.

All of a sudden there was a horrifying, ear-shattering Screech that rippled from Hydrus' vocal chords and echoed around the clearing. Through squinting eyes, Ash saw the eight Scyther stumble from discomfort and pain the noise was causing, and Hydrus took his chance. The harrowing noise shut off and his head snapped around before Hydrus aimed an Ice Beam at the Scyther. Two clones were destroyed as a result, but nothing more come out of it.

Then one of the Kratos clones closed in swung their arms. Growling, Hydrus forced his palms together and focused to generate a pulsating ball of water in his hands. The first Kratos slashed his arm and immediately disappeared when he touched Hydrus' shoulder. A second one came and Hydrus whipped around, assuming that it was the real one, and thrust out his head, around which he had collected psychic energy simultaneously. The Zen Headbutt passed through the Scyther's torso and forced it to dissipate. Ash sighed; the real Kratos quickly closed in, and—

Suddenly Hydrus smashed the Water Pulse to the ground and it exploded, spraying a wave of water and energy all around. Ash blinked. Hydrus was caught in the crossfire and was blown back by the point-blank explosion at his feet, but he'd been willing to take that price; the rest of the clones had been crushed as a result and as the water hit the ground a dazed and surprised Kratos stumbled out.

A freezing bolt of ice struck Kratos' leg just as he recovered from the dizziness. His thick, armoured foot was encased in a block of ice, mist steaming as the frost creeped around the grass. Hydrus quacked triumphantly and brought his hands together, producing another Water Pulse as Kratos hacked away at the shell of ice locking his feet to the ground. With a burst of energy, Hydrus sent the sphere of water shooting and Kratos was engulfed in another destructive wave of water and energy.

Another cloak of water swallowed Hydrus and he was propelled forward like a bullet. With a quick heave, Kratos threw himself to a standing position from a push-up in time to block the Aqua Jet against his forearms, which he did not have time to angle such that his blades angled out. The force drove him backwards, but he sank his scythes into the ground and closed to a halt before countering with a Night Slash, catching Hydrus in the side.

Hydrus quickly flipped around and encased his tail with water before driving it into Kratos' back so hard that the Scyther was knocked to the ground. As he flipped onto his back, he looked up just in time for another Aqua Tail to drive into his skull, eliciting a pained hiss of pain and surprise.

Two brutal swings dug into Hydrus' shoulders and sent him to his knees; but the Golduck scowled through the pain and smacked the claws away before raking his own against Kratos. It managed to make him stumble away, but Kratos quickly flew into the air and swiped his arms in the air, producing a quartet of wind blades.

Hydrus breathed out an Ice Beam and released it in a sweeping arc, freezing the Razor Winds as the spun down at him. The scythes of air were crystallised in a second and, as they plummeted down, they were smashed to bits when Hydrus swung an Aqua Tail at them. They exploded in a shower of glittering shards that rained down to the ground and sparkled beautifully under the noon light.

A taunting growl surface from Hydrus as the gemstone on his forehead flashed and a beam of coloured energy blazed from his eyes. Dancing around the Psybeam, Kratos crossed his scythes, which began to glow a sickly shade of green, before slashing down at Hydrus in the shape of an X. A scream rippled from him as the X-Scissor burned his chest and he spat an Ice Beam that froze Kratos wings in an instant, making him lose flight and hit the dirt.

When Kratos struggled to pick himself off the ground, he was knocked back to the ground by an destructive psychic wave that had bubbled from the jewel on Hydrus' forehead. Another Ice Beam was spewed from Hydrus' gullet, freezing parts of Kratos and he was glued to the ground. Then a sphere of water began to grow and pulse in Hydrus' hands.

" _Stop_!" Ash yelled. The battle was over and everyone knew it. Hydrus frowned and looked over at Ash. "There's no reason to beat a dead Rapidash. Kratos, are you alright?"

Kratos stared at Ash angrily. His pride had been wounded and he was stuck to the ground, covered in ice. No, he was most definitely _not_ alright.

Kratos began to pull himself out of the ice. The frost cracked under his strength and crumbled away when he flexed his limbs. He struggled to gain footing under such weight, but maintained his composure around Ash. Ice stuck to parts of his armour and he breathed heavily. He exuded humility and even some shame.

A cocky smirk crept up Hydrus' face as Ash's two pokémon stalked up to him. He quacked arrogantly and looked at Kratos with a grin. Ash gave him a look. "Enough. You should've settled your differences by now."

Ash glanced at Kratos. "You're not as skilled as Hydrus, or Saur, etc., but don't worry; that's what training is for. Shake it off. We'll have you at their level in no time, but you've got to work hard. Got it?"

Kratos agreed. Ash smiled. "Good. Now, I want you all to split into pairs and start training – Hydrus, you need to keep practising Hydro Pump, so you need to be with Misty's group – but the rest of you, focus on improving your moves you've been learning recently and I'll come by to check up on your progress. Alright?"

His team acknowledged him quickly, then began to follow the orders. Screecher and Zeus bounded off to a cluster of large rocks not too far and began to make their Power Gem attack more focused and efficient. After everyone else had left, Snorlax finally rolled off his belly and lumbered off to a spot not too far away and began mentoring Monferno in the art of Mega Punch.

Ash was too distracted to notice the nasty lever Hydrus had sent Kratos, who returned it with a snarl. Their problems were far from over.

XxXxX

A scream of pain. A splatter of blood. The sound of a gunshot ripping through the air and the thud of a body hitting the ground. Then there was an explosion of unbearable agony that crept up his legs like hot fire. All around him, chaos and death moved like dancers and Ash looked up to see Proton's evil face smiling down on him and a blade closing on his throat—

He bolted upwards and yelled angrily as he clawed at his enemy, only to find his fingers tearing at thin air. He swatted at his throat and looked around, his chest rising and falling rapidly. No metal. No blood. No screams and definitely no rotting corpses surrounding him.

Ash heard a shuffling noise and tensed, grabbing at his sleeping bag. A shock of orange hair appeared in front of him and he jumped when he felt a pair of hands close on his shoulders. But they were comforting, and soft, and he sighed into them.

"Ash?" came Misty's soft voice. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "N-nothing. Just…It was a bad dream."

He saw her frowning despite the darkness. "You're getting the nightmares too, huh?" He could hear the bitter amusement in her words.

Ash sighed. "Yeah."

"What do you dream of? That is, if you don't mind me asking?"

He felt a touch of irritation, but he felt a sudden urge to appear vulnerable to someone, and so he spoke. "It's just…just chaos at first. Then everything becomes clearer, and the noise becomes louder. I see Proton's ugly face every time." He shuddered. "Then…then I can see Erika being shot, and my legs being shattered, and Officer Jenny being m-murdered—"

"Shh, it's okay," Misty soothed. "If you ever need to talk about it…It's also nice to know that you talk to people, too."

"I'll keep that in mind."

He heard a sigh, and the hands lifted off his shoulders. Then Ash felt a pair of arms wrap around his neck and he let out a startled yelp, but before he could fully process everything Misty had let go and she rushed back to her spot. Ash felt a his cheeks burn as he stared oddly at Misty slipping into her sleeping bag. He'd never expected her to be an affectionate person. Maybe she pitied him?

With a stifled yawn, Ash tucked himself in his sleeping bag. Nightmares or not, he needed sleep. Tomorrow would be another long day, and they'd dawdled long enough on their journey to Fuchsia City.

XxXxX

 **Trainer : Ash Ketchum**

 **Pokémon In Possession :**

 **Saur** – Ivysaur

 **Delphi** – Xatu

 **Zeus** – Flaaffy

 **Hydrus** – Golduck

 **Monferno**

 **Snorlax**

 **Kratos** – Scyther

XxXxX

 **Well there it is. I'd like to apologise for the time it took to put this chapter out – I know I promised faster updates, but it seems that writer's block is as unpredictable as my libido.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading! I'll be bringing out the next chapter in a few weeks. College is starting in a few days, and I've got to adjust to the schedule of waking up early in the morning and downing gallons of coffee.**

 **Thanks to everyone who reviewed – whether negatively or positively – and for following, sharing, and marking this story as a favourite. The support helps me write faster and brings a smile to my face every now and then.**

 **Review responses:**

 **1995hzq: One of the most brutal pokemon stories ever, hope nothing worse comes next.**

 _—I guess we'll have to see :D_

 **Zyr0TruthCanExist: Holy crap. This single chapter made so many impacts, I can already tell. You had what felt like a mildly rushed S.S. Anne and it didn't really have the impact that most stories seem to. However, this chapter was insane. I got the same feeling reading it as I did when reading Chapter 14 of Traveller. If you can keep up the writing style that has been shown in the last couple of chapters, I definitely see you 'reaching' the the levels of it, Challenger, TME, etc. I am personally glad that more and more people are starting to develop Pokemon fics on this level of writing. This was a brilliant chapter.**

 _—Thank you so much! I can definitely agree that the St Anne arc is lacking impact when I took another look at it; as I proofread the previous chapters I'll try to make them better._

 **Realistic view (Guest): So I've just finished chap 11 and it just makes me more disappointed at society. Weakened from Peace times, it's sickening. It's easier being the villain because they don't need to hold back. why hasn't the League declared war against the rockets? honestly! These guys are literal terrorists and yet the police are still hesitant to kill, Ash is still hesitant to kill. This is far from being a kind person, this is a naive person who thinks he can stop criminals without actually hurting them, even if he is literally on the verge of death, even when everyone around him is dying.**

 **If this is what you were aiming for, where you will finally rip away his hesitance towards killing criminals after building up his kind and sympathetic personality, then i applaud you but if even after all this, after Erika is most certainly gonna die because she is a low key plot device that's suppose to be a trigger for him to grow. if even after all this he still feels remorse for hurting the rockets then i will be severly disappointed in your character control and would recommend you send the pussy of a 10 yr old back home where he can climb back into his mama's womb where he can try being born again under a different name.**

 **On a side note, this is the 2nd time Ash has nearly died in a public skirmish, surely Red should consider some protection methods now, what kind of champion can't even protect or at least train his younger brother. If i was in his shoes i would leave one of my pokemon that has trained for 5yrs at least as an ace so it could keep him alive, but that's just from a... realistic view.**

 _—Ash is still a kid – and despite what he's gone through it's pretty hard to kill someone, even harder if you're a ten/eleven year old child. Ash still views the world as black and white; he's still naïve, and he's still an innocent kid whose morals are still unwavering despite what he's seen and gone through. It's very easy for one to be able to say that they'll do things when they're simply bystanders but it's totally different when you're actually going through it; after all, there are many rape victims that are asked why the didn't push their rapists off, etc. There will come a time where Ash will have to make a decision to take someone's life but it's definitely not going to be easy and it's going to take a harrowing toll on him…you'll just have to wait and see._

 **Gust (Guest): I swear if you kill off erika...**

 _—Haha, fortunately she's alright. Unfortunately, Officer Jenny took her place._

 _This is so sad, Alexa play "Sorry not Sorry"…_

 **Garm88: First I need to say that this is very well written, enjoyable and interesting.**

 **Now ends the compliments and comes the criticism. There is no way, zero, that this could not break my suspension of disbelief. The reaction time for all first responder forces involved in this is utterly abysmal unless the entire chain of communication was broken or infiltrated by eny agents.**

 **At the very most it would have taken five minutes for league forces to be completely swarming Celadon in a world where long range teleportation is so common and easily accessible. Especially if it's recently enough after a civil war where Surge is both still as young as he is and as well known. This is a society that has to have an astounding amount of recent militarization, with a city as big as Celadon probably having a fairly powerful force stationed nearby. If there was any competency on the part of the White Hats, the Rockets should have been utterly spanked in quick order.**

 **Either you didn't think this through all the way, which is understandable, or just ignored it for narrative convenience, while also understandable is just unfortunate.**

 _—Long range teleportation isn't exactly as the name suggests. Sure, you can take huge leaps, but, like I've mentioned in the previous chapters, teleportation drains on a pokémon's use of psychic powers and thus they can only travel some hundred meters before being unable to continue. It's kind of like PP, where a pokémon can use a certain move only a number of times until they can't. There are also anti-teleportation fields that the Rockets set up to prevent the league forces from popping in. Unfortunately I mucked up in the last chapter by making Delphi able to Teleport Ash and Zack out of the Pokémon Centre pretty easily, and also forgot to mention the anti-teleportation fields they put up. My apologies._

 _Another thing is that Team Rocket took Celadon by surprise, and had attacked several major locations in a matter of minutes (i.e the Departmental Store, the Contest Hall, the Pokécenter, etc.). When the 26/11 terrorist attack happened in Mumbai, it took until next morning for the NSG forces to make their move. I suppose it would make sense for the Saffron forces to appear about half an hour or two after the Celadon forces had taken charge._

 _Thanks for reviewing! I hope this clears it up. If it still doesn't make sense…I guess I fucked up pretty bad, eh?_

 **Once again, thanks for reading. Until next time!**


	13. The Fuchsia Festival

_Chapter Thirteen: The Fuchsia Festival_

Misty slapped the welcome sign as she skipped through the gates of Fuchsia. She did a little happy jig and stretched out her arms, sucking in a gallon of air through her nose, as if she'd just passed by a smoker and was looking for a breath of fresh air. "We're finally here!" she remarked giddily. "No more finding dirt in my sleeping bag."

Cool breeze made Ash's collar flutter and his hat fly off. "Do you know where the Pokécenter is?" Ash asked as he picked his cap off the ground. Surprisingly, there was barely any dust clinging to it.

"Yeah; two rights and then a left. Let's go."

Fuchsia City looked far different than any other place Ash had visited. It had this nostalgic feeling with it that Ash couldn't explain. It felt like Lavender Town, but with far more space, greenery, and life. He glanced around. Everything was a pale shade of pink, from the small houses to the neat footpaths and the Pokécenter, whose bright red roof Ash could already see up ahead; it was as if he was seeing everything through a filter of pink and he was alright with it. It was soothing.

As the sky darkened, the overhead streetlamps flickered to life and shone down beams of yellow. Ash tugged at the straps of his bag and continued on to the Pokécenter with a skip in his step; something about his surroundings made him chipper than usual, and he surprised himself by smiling at a random couple that passed by him. Yep. There was definitely something in the air.

The doors slid open and Ash and Misty strode into the Pokécenter. The nurse at the desk perked up when she saw them walk up to her. "Hello!" she chirped. "How may I help you?"

"Uh, we'd like to book two rooms for the next few days, and heal our pokémon, please," Ash said, tapping his pokédex on the desk impatiently.

"Certainly; may I have your identification?"

Ash waited as the nurse ran them through the trainer database. A moment later she looked back up and slid their cards across the desk. "Here are the keys to your rooms," she said, holding out two key cards, "and I will have your pokémon back healed in no time. In the meantime, you can busy yourselves with freshening up – and dinner will be served at nine."

Ash hissed under the hot water that drenched him. At first it stung his skin, but it took only a second or two for his wince of pain loosen up into an expression of ecstasy as he drooled under the shower. As he stepped out of the bathroom, he dried himself, and then slipped into a fresh pair of night clothes that were still a bit damp from when he'd washed them this morning.

At five to nine he leapt off his bed and headed to the cafeteria for some food. He was famished, and the bag of chips he'd eaten in his room had only helped so much. His eyes scanned the place and he elicited a sound of triumph when he spotted Misty seated in a booth, skimming through a newspaper.

"What's for dinner?" Ash asked eagerly.

"Sticky rice, gravy, chicken stew and a cup of ice cream for dessert," she murmured, still staring at the paper in her hands.

Ash grumbled. "What's so interesting, anyway?" he muttered, scooting up next to her. She gave him a look but didn't voice her displeasure.

"The Fuchsia Festival is staring in two days," said Misty. "It's happening in the city square. We could attend it!"

Ash frowned. "What's so cool about it? I need to get battle Koga, and then we've got to get to Cinnabar Island."

Misty scowled. "Come on, it'll be fun! There's a ton of stalls and I bet you that you'll be able to buy some really cool trainer supplies. What do you say?"

To be honest, the Fuchsia Festival _did_ sound exciting – it would be fun exploring the things it held, trying samples from food stalls and spending a day simply relaxing and enjoying everything it had to offer. After all, apart from the Safari Zone and the gym, Fuchsia didn't have much to offer. "Alright," he conceded. "But we're going to the Safari Zone first thing tomorrow. Deal?"

Misty scoffed. "Do you even have to ask? I _need_ to catch some exotic water pokémon in the Safari Zone. I've heard that they expanded the different biome and added pokémon from Hoenn and Sinnoh."

Ash's eyes lit up. "That's awesome! Do you think there'll be any Dratini colonies?"

She scoffed again. "Of course there will be. But I'm not going to catch one unless it's either out of the water or at the edge of its pond. I don't wanna die trying to catch it in one of the blue holes."

Ash shuddered. Dragons liked to live in the harshest of environments – Gabite loved the deep underground, Bagon the tallest mountains. Dratini were no different. They made their homes in what people called blue holes – deep waters with great pressure. They seemed innocent and docile enough, but if a person got too close to the blue holes they would be sucked in deep like whirlpools and then crushed to death from the immense water pressure.

"It'd be cool, though," Ash said out loud, lost in thought. "Catching a Dratini, I mean. Imagine having a Dragonite on your team. You'd be unstoppable!" The memory of Lance's Dragonite casting a humongous sphere of draconian energy flashed in his mind, and that only made his imagination run wilder.

"Eh, I'd stick to a Dragonair," Misty chimed in. "They're pretty. And they look more like water pokémon than Dragonite."

The rest of their time in the cafeteria went on in silence that was disturbed only by small talk and the clinking of their utensils. The nurse had been kind enough to take care of their teams' hunger in the wards rather than interrupt their dinner needlessly. As Ash licked his bowl of ice cream clean, he saw Misty rise from her seat, and so he quickly grabbed his own empty tray and followed her to the main lobby once he threw the dirty plate in the bin.

"Ah, there you are," Nurse Joy exclaimed. "I was just about to call your names over the intercom."

She slammed two trays of pokéballs on the desk and slid them over the front desk. "Here are your pokémon," she mumbled, Ash clipping his own to his belt. "Enjoy your stay!"

"Um, Nurse Joy?" Misty said coyly. "I have a Magikarp and I am trying to figure out when he will evolve. Could you take a look at him for me?"

Joy nodded, accepting the pokéball from the girl. "How long have you had him for?" she said as she placed it in the pokéball scanner.

"A few months. I've been training him really hard," Misty said brightly.

All of a sudden Joy's face fell. "Oh. Oh, _no_."

Misty frowned and peeked over the desk. Ash looked at the nurse in confusion. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Miss Waterflower, you haven't…you haven't given your Magikarp anything, have you?" asked Joy.

"No. Should I have?" Misty said.

"Miss Waterflower…" Her voice sounded hesitant, nervous; scared, even. "Have you ever wondered why your Magikarp's scales seem to…shine?"

Misty beamed. "Oh, yeah! But I always thought that it was a genetic quirk, or something. Is he Shiny?" she added, sounding hopeful.

"No. Those are everstones, hidden under your pokémon's scales. Some so deep that I won't be able to see them unless I dig under his scales."

Misty looked like her entire world shattered; her face had gone deathly pale and her mouth was hanging wide open in shock. Ash looked from her to a grave Nurse Joy in confusion. "I'm a little lost here," he said, tentatively holding up a hand. "What's an everstone? And why is Misty so white?"

"Everstones," explained Joy, pinching the bridge of her nose, "are objects you give to pokémon to prevent them from evolving, Mr Ketchum. For example, if a trainer wants to train his pokémon to the fullest extent while being, say, in its first stage, one would give it an everstone to hold for the time being. Unfortunately, it seems that Magikarp's everstones are…stuck…to its scales. I'm sorry. He's never going to evolve."

"Never?" Ash repeated, incredulous.

"Never. There might be a tiny possibility for it to evolve, but the chances of that happening are one in a million," Joy said. "I'm _so_ sorry."

"No," gasped Misty, her shoulders sagging. She slumped down to her knees and stared numbly ahead of her. "No, no, no, no, _no_ …"

Ash patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. "Er, we should probably head to bed," he suggested, pursing his lips. "Uh, Misty? Can you hear me?"

It took way too long for him to haul her back to her room, and she was still catatonic by the time he went to sleep.

XxXxX

Misty was brimming with anger the next morning and it seemed like every minor inconvenience was ticking her off. It got to a point where she screamed in rage when her spoon slipped from her fingers.

"Stupid spoon!" she raged, bending it by the neck with surprising strength. "Why does this keep happening to _me?_ First the damn Magikarp, then the flipping spoon. What did I do?!"

"Shh!" hushed Ash, furtively glancing at the people around them staring. "You're making a scene."

"I. Don't. Care," she hissed back. She looked positively manic.

Ash sighed. "Look, it's sad that things didn't work out with your Magikarp, but you can't keep lashing out for the smallest of things. People will think you're crazy!"

She looked ready to slap him into next week, but instead of smacking him across the face she leaned back in her chair and let out a deep, tired sigh. "I spent so _long_ training him!" she moaned, rubbing her eyes. "Weeks and weeks, time that I could've spent training Wartortle and Poliwhirl instead. But no – I just had to buy the one Magikarp that has everstones stuck under his scales. All my work's gone to shit!"

"No it's not," Ash protested. "I've seen you work really hard with Wartortle and Poliwhirl, and all that time training Magikarp wasn't a waste – it taught you how to train pokémon like him! So if you ever catch a Feebas, or, or a Finneon, you'll have them evolved in no time!"

The tears Misty had been struggling with for the past five minutes were swallowed back and she gave him a watery smile. "Thank you, Ash."

Ash blinked. He felt warmth and pride balloon up inside him, and he sat straighter in his chair. "See? I'm good at pep-talks too, aren't I?"

She smacked him playfully. "Idiot," she said cheerfully.

He took the slap with a grin and shoved down his plate of scrambled eggs down his mouth. Misty attacked her food with similar vigour and, soon enough, their plates were squeaky clean, the only remains being the oil and grease that had clung to their plates.

As Misty went to wash their plates, Ash made his way to the lobby. He looked at his wristwatch; it was nearing noon, and it was the appropriate time to visit the Safari Zone. According to the city's map it was a twenty minute walk up north from the Pokécenter, and was marked by tall fences that made it very difficult for poachers to break in. Honestly, Ash was impressed by the Safari Zone's security – with so many pokémon being housed and raised, he'd expected for the fences to be crushed at least a few times a day. Or perhaps the rangers patrolling the boundaries were just too respected or feared by the wild safari pokémon to be attacked.

Ash himself was curious by the kind of pokémon he would likely encounter within the Safari Zone – it was the largest League owned property in Kanto to make up for the many territorial pokémon it held. From Donphan to Nidoking, the Safari Zone didn't discriminate. There were even Kangaskhan, Kanto's most endangered species, making their home in there, but it was a crime to capture one in the Safari Zone, so Ash didn't bother much – still, it would be exciting to see one in the wild. Nidorino were probably the most common species in the Safari Zone and so he crossed them off his list too. Personally, he was banking on catching either a steel-type or a Dratini if he found one, or perhaps one of the Hoenn and Sinnoh pokémon they'd recently imported.

Misty had told him that he'd have to select a biome to explore for the day – ranging from savannahs and mountains, to even tundra and blistering deserts. He figured he'd be able to make up his mind when he got there, like he did whenever he had to place an order at the fast food joint.

"Ketchum."

Hearing his name made him blink and look up. Confused, he whipped around and faced a shock of thick, straightened purple hair and hollow, black eyes. His confusion rose as he tried to place the familiar face – he knew him from somewhere, someplace, and it was annoying him to no end – until the name finally clicked.

"Paul!" exclaimed Ash. Then he was hit by a prick of doubt. "Right?" A nod. "You were the last person I'd expected to run into." He gave a sheepish grin.

"A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one," Paul replied, his face a mask of boredom. He passed by Ash and placed his belt of pokéballs on the desk and continued talking to him without looking. "Here for your gym battle, I suppose?"

"Yeah," Ash said brightly. "I got here yesterday. How about you? Did you just get here or—?"

"I just got back from challenging Koga," Paul drawled, still not facing Ash. He murmured something to Joy, who smiled and handed his pokéballs to a Chansey aide. "I reached Fuchsia the day before."

Ash sidled up next to Paul. "So, how was he?" he probed. "Was the battle tough?"

There was a pause for a moment as Paul glanced at his Pokétch. "He's not being recruited into the Johto Elite Four for nothing," was his response in the same, bored tone. "He got me a few times, I'll give him that." Then he smirked. "But my pokémon were stronger. The Soul Badge looks pretty good along with the rest of my badges," he said, opening and closing his badge case.

For some reason, Ash bristled – perhaps it was the arrogant and smug undertone – but he brushed it off as nothing. "That's great," he said, a bit forcefully. "So, what now? Are you leaving for Cinnabar, or…?"

"Not for a while. I still need to catch some assets at the Safari Zone, which I haven't had the pleasure of visiting, and since the Fuchsia Festival is in a couple of days it wouldn't hurt to spend a few hours enjoying the festivities," he said. "Speaking of which, Koga won't be accepting challenges from tomorrow until the Festival concludes. I suggest you postpone your battle until later and use the time training. He's not a pushover," Paul finished.

"Uh, thanks for the advice," Ash said, a bit uneasily. There was uncomfortable silence as Ash waited along with Paul for his pokémon. When was Misty going to save him from such awkwardness?

"Tell me, are you free later this evening?" Paul asked.

Ash blinked. "Uh…probably. Why?"

"I remember promising you to a battle the next time I saw you." He smirked. "I thought you'd hold me to that."

"Yeah— I mean, of course!" Ash sputtered. "When and where?"

"How about 8:30 in the evening, at the Battle Club? I'll book us a field."

"It's a date," Ash said, grinning. He gave a thumbs-up and was pleased to see Paul crack a smile, despite it only being held for a fraction of a second.

"Good. I'll catch up with you later." Nurse Joy returned, along with Paul's six pokéballs. "Good luck with finding something good in the Safari Zone."

"You too!" Ash called as Paul headed for the rooms. He could feel his blood begin to boil with anticipation and excitement. He had never battled Paul before, but from Ash had seen at Mount Moon and Lavender Town, his pokémon seemed to be pretty strong.

"Hey, let's go," Misty interrupted, appearing by his side. She frowned. "Who was that?"

"Paul," Ash answered. "You probably don't remember him – he was with us in Mount Moon? Yeah, the same one. I'll be battling him later in Fuchsia's Battle Club. I can't wait!"

"Alright, Ketchum, keep it cool," she said. "You need to save that energy for the Safari Zone. Speaking of which, let's go. The afternoons are said to be the perfect time to draw out a Dratini."

XxXxX

Ash thanked Misty for urging him to wear loose, cotton clothes – if it wasn't for her, he'd be dying of the heat by now.

As they walked towards the sliding doors of the Safari Zone entrance, Ash marvelled the sight around him. Now that he was closer, Ash could easily agree upon the fact that it most likely was the largest League owned property in Kanto. The large, electrical fences stretched for miles on end until they seemingly disappeared over the horizon. From what he could see through them, there was only grassy savannah, and a few short trees standing alone, drinking in the heat and sunlight pouring down on them. Then he finally saw a lone Rhyhorn grazing the fields. It looked at him with only moving its eyes and slowly munched on the grass in its mouth, until Ash was uncomfortable enough to look away.

Inside the tunnelling entrance was a pair of rangers manning a desk who would allow them to enter and continue onwards once they'd paid. It was a whopping 4,5000 pokédollars for a few hours, which was understandable once one took into account what they were actually paying for – five hours of unmoderated fun where you could catch as many exotic and rare pokémon as you wanted. And it wasn't like the price mattered, anyway; every day there were hundreds of trainers coming in to try their luck and catch the pokémon they wanted.

"So, any particular area you want to hit?" Misty asked as they made their way to the waiting room.

Ash nodded. "I was thinking about getting a ground-type, or a steel-type pokémon," he admitted. "Any idea what areas I should visit?"

"Probably the deserts," she told him. "Honestly, I don't really know – you'll have to check the pamphlets. But you'll surely be able to find a myriad of ground-type pokémon in the desert. You'll have to rent some equipment, though."

Ash grumbled. The Safari Zone would've felt like a scam if it wasn't for how much money he had in his account. Days and weeks of constant winning and frugal spending had allowed him to hoard a considerable amount of money that would seem large to many travelling trainers. His mom had taught him well. Unlike most others, Ash had decided to live a Spartan lifestyle in the wild and only spend money on the bare necessities, and only splurge if he was sure he wasn't going to go completely broke.

They found seats in the waiting room as soon as they entered. The room was abuzz with chatter and laughter coming from the dozen other trainers around them. Before being sent off to explore the Zone, they would first have an orientation with one of the rangers, or – if he was in the mood – the warden. Any minute now…

Right then, the warden swept into the room, accompanied by a pair of rangers. "To your seats," the warden barked, making them jump. "Now!"

There was a mad dash for seats as soon as those words were uttered.

The warden was a formidable man, nothing like what Ash had expected him to be. The square jaws and muscly arms went oddly well with greying hair and a face full of wrinkles. There was an air of authority swirling around him that seemed to manifest from the permanent scowl on his face. What made Ash the most nervous was the revolver strapped to the side of his waist, right next to a pair of pokéballs.

"The warden has a few words to say," said one of the rangers meekly.

"I am not going to sugar-coat it," the warden began, "but the Safari Zone is a dangerous place. So you've managed to spend a few months in the wilderness without being hurt. I don't _care._ You will be careful when exploring the ranch. I will _not_ have my arms carrying your corpses back to base because of your foolishness. You will be allowed to carry only one pokémon with you on the inside—"

"What's the point of being careful, then?" blurted someone. It was a kid about Ash's age, his nose scrunched in confusion. "If the Safari Zone is actually dangerous, what help is one pokémon going to do?"

The expression on the warden's face made it clear what he thought of the kid. "As I was saying," he continued, "you will each be allowed only one single pokémon to accompany you inside during your time there. There is a storage system here that you can use to transfer the rest of your pokémon to, or you can simply use our lockers until your time ends.

"Attacking the reserve pokémon is a criminal offence unless they are the aggressors in the situation," continued the warden, raising his voice towards the end when he heard shouts of protest. "To monitor your behaviour in biomes, you will be required to wear these—" He held up a pitch black, elastic band that was constricted around his wrist. The wall behind him flared to light as an image was projected by the overhead LCD projector. "It takes in your entire surroundings and we'll be able to make sure that you haven't broken the rules while capturing pokémon. If you remove the bracelet or attempt to do so, you will be fined 7,000 pokédollars and all the Safari pokémon you caught will be released back into the preserve."

The stern gaze he eyed them with made sure that there was no room for argument. While harsh, Ash could understand the measures the Safari Zone was taking – many poachers attempted to acquire the rare pokémon within the Safari Zone daily, and the League wasn't going to take any chances whatsoever.

"You will be each be given thirty safari-balls to use for capturing the preserve pokémon. You will also be provided with bait to lure the preserve pokémon. If you have managed to use up all thirty safari-balls before your time is up you will be forced to end the session early. Am I clear?"

Again, there was no disagreement. The warden continued.

"There are five jeeps that will take you to the environment of your choice – the mountains the desert, savannah and grasslands, the water's edge and marshes, tundra, and the jungle. Once you are dropped off at your desired location you will be able to move freely in the preserve until your time is up."

"Uh, sir?" said a timid voice.

"What?" the warden barked, frowning at the teenager a few rows from the back.

"Uh, could you tell us where the Dratini reside?" the trainer asked, pursing her lips.

"Ah, the Dratini," the warden sneered. "I have had many trainers ask me this, and my answer never changes – you will never be able to catch a Dratini in here, not while I'm still alive. No one has in over thirty years. There are always rumours, sightings, but the smart ones know not to get to close, and the idiots always end up being crushed in the blue holes. Their bodies are rarely found. I suggest you forget about catching one and settle on something realistic."

The girl had gone as white as a sheet by the time the warden was done. "Well?" snapped the warden. "Move!"

They scrambled out of their seats and headed for the exit, but not before being reminded to deposit their pokémon, take the batch of Safari-balls, and wear the camera/bracelet. After remember the number to his locker, and minimising the cluster of camouflaged pokéballs, Ash slipped the bracelet on. It was extremely smooth and silken, like sash, but when he tried to stretch it was tighter than Ariados silk.

The afternoon sun shone brightly down on them as they streamed out through the back, making Ash squint and lower his cap. Five dirt jeeps lay spread out in front of them, with a ranger already at the wheel. Ash sidled up next to Misty, who was using her hand as a cover for her eyes.

"Which environment are you hitting?" he asked.

"The water's edge and marshlands," she told him firmly. "I skimmed through the pamphlet; I've got a good chance of catching the pokémon I want. Besides, that's where it's rumoured the Dratini nest is," she added, smiling.

"You've got a lot of competition then," Ash pointed out, looking at the Jeep Misty was supposed to jump in. It seemed like the idea of catching Dratini still appealed to many despite the warden's disappointing remarks back inside. Not that he blamed him – if he'd been a bit less realistic, he, too, would've joined Misty in the marshlands.

"See you later, then." Ash hi-fived Misty. With a parting glance to her, Ash rushed up to his own jeep and quickly climbed into it. He couldn't help but grimace against the dust that was kicked up when the thick tyres of the jeep spun and the engine roared to life.

XxXxX

To be honest, Ash wasn't very impressed by the Safari Zone.

The rangers had dropped them off at a safe house before driving away without another word. Annoyed at the lack of instructions, Ash stormed inside with the rest of the trainers who had decided to visit the mountains and deserts along with him. Thankfully, the rangers and medics inside had been kind enough to tell them that they were free to grab equipment from the safe house for trekking the mountains or exploring the deserts.

His knees burned by the time he was halfway up, and it was then that he decided to trek his way back down. The mountain ranges weren't that tall – more like hills, really – and he hadn't encountered any pokémon interesting or cool-looking enough. He had strayed away from the Graveler he'd seen rolling down the hill in fear of encountering a Golem. Fearow and Spearow cast shadows down on him whenever they flew by, and a few pokémon had looked at him curiously before scurrying away to scavenge for food. Ash had wanted to climb to the mountain peak, where the strong pokémon resided, but mighty screeches and his aching legs had stopped him from doing so.

Hydrus – who he had chosen to go with after much deliberation – was doing much better than him, but he shouldn't have been surprised. What with how durable and resilient pokémon were, and how strong Hydrus was, Ash wasn't bothered much by the Golduck's lack of fatigue. After all, his team underwent far strenuous workouts than calm walks every day. Hydrus was no exception – in fact, if Ash had to be honest, he was one of the hardest workers on the team, if not the most.

"Okay, let's take a break," Ash huffed as he staggered to the ground. His inhaled a sharp breath of oxygen and wrung his legs as he settled down on the hard surface that made up the winding path up the mountains. Next to him, Hydrus grimaced. Then the expression turned into one of arrogance as he Ash down his bill.

Ash scowled. "Yeah, yeah, I'm not as muscly as you," he snapped snarly. Hydrus laughed – it was a harsh, loud and enunciated in quacks, but it was laughter nonetheless.

Ash sipped from his flask and exhaled. "We'll be exploring the deserts now," he informed his pokémon. He looked around. He noticed a Nidoran behind a bush. It realized that he had seen it and immediately jumped. The little blue creature scurried out of sight, leaving a snorting Ash.

"There's not much to do here. Apart from the Graveler, there aren't many strong pokémon." He sipped from his flask again.

Ash and Hydrus paused when a smooth sound, like a blade slicing the wind, made itself heard. Curious and confused, they looked around – but there was nothing in sight. But just as Ash rose from his spot on the ground, they saw a blurry figure moving across the skies, gliding, and then attach it to the trees.

While Ash didn't know the creature's name, it did look incredibly familiar. A fairly large, pink, winged creature – the size of a toddler, really – had sunk its pincers into the thick back of the tree, hanging from it as it cocked its head at Ash and Hydrus. Its bulbous, scorpion-like tail swung pendulously, and he could already see the hint of venom threatening to fall from the barb. A large fat tongue hung from its wide, fanged mouth and he could already see the drool dropping from it.

"What's that?" he muttered to himself. Its name eluded him, and it was mildly infuriating. It looked interesting – maybe he could catch it?

First, he needed to know what the creature was, and so he flipped out his pokédex. He noticed the pokémon's black eyes narrow and move from his face and to the dex. Not that he cared particularly.

"Gligar," he breathed, reading the name off the screen. A ground and flying type pokémon, which evolved into a ferocious, vampire-like monster that looked crazily strong. The large, yellow eyes creeped him out from the screen itself. It certainly seemed to be a worthy catch.

He grabbed a fistful of bait and held his hand out. The slime dripped down his hands from the block of meat. "Here," he bribed, urging the Gligar to take it. "Do you want some?"

The Gligar didn't respond, only stared. On a hunch, Ash tossed the bait at the pink creature. It would've slapped the tree, but the beaded tail lashed out and grabbed the chunk of meat as it neared the trunk. It lifted the bait to its mouth with the barb, like a toothpick. Ash smiled as it began nibbling, and then took brave, large bites.

It looked up at Ash once in was done. Then its eyes flicked to the bag of bait. A feeling of uneasiness crawled under his skin as the Gligar kept staring longingly at the slimy meat he'd taken from the safe house—

As quick as a viper the Gligar sprang from its place and shot towards Ash. Instinctively he ducked, but a second later he heard a loud _bang!_ Hydrus had blasted the flyscorpion pokémon with a Psychic the second it had shown aggression. The wave rippled from his gemstone and slammed into the Gligar, knocking it back to the tree.

It bounced off its back and skidded to a halt, then looked up confusedly. The Gligar frowned when it saw Hydrus' glare of warning. Apparently it hadn't taken heed of the pain it had felt, because a split-second later it jumped back on its feet and lunged at Ash.

This time Hydrus ran protectively in front of his trainer and erected a Protect barrier around the two. The Gligar's pincers knocked against the spherical shield like a knuckle against glass, and it hissed when its stinger bounced similarly. Its leathery blue wings flapped as it flew away, and then turned around for another dive bomb that had no effect, just like last time. As the knockback sent it to the ground, Hydrus collapsed the shield and sprayed the Gligar with an Ice Beam.

A keening shriek erupted as the ray of icy energy hissed against the pokémon. Ash winced; as Gligar were ground- _and_ flying-types, they would be doubly weak to ice-type attacks. Still, Ash couldn't bring himself to feel empathetic; if only it hadn't tried to attack him, Hydrus wouldn't have dished out an Ice Beam.

A shell of ice formed around Gligar's back when the pale mist cleared out. As it struggled to get back up, Ash had the idea of tossing a Safari-ball at it. It wasn't like he'd attacked the reserve pokémon without reason – he'd been provoked, so he _should_ be safe when legal loopholes were concerned…

The Safari-ball sucked in the incapacitated Gligar and began to shake on the ground. Once, twice, four times, _five_ —

Unfortunately for him, the Gligar seemed to find the strength to overcome the capture device and it exploded from the Safari-ball with a snap. It gave the Safari-ball a crazed glare – then gave one to Ash – before shooting up into the sky and flying away, before Ash could even comprehend anything.

The Gligar was but a mere blur as it scarpered out of sight, and Ash gave it a final look of annoyance before glancing to his partner. "Good job, Hydrus." He clapped the Golduck on the shoulder and tossed him a few berries he'd taken out of his backpack a moment later. His pokémon gulped them all down after only a single, collective bite.

"Too bad it ran away, though," Ash mumbled, but Hydrus scowled and harrumphed, as if saying, _Good riddance!_

Ash rolled his eyes. "Come on, let's go," he muttered, glancing at his watch. "We've only got a few hours left. We need to get another teammate, yeah?"

XxXxX

The blistering desert was not much better than the mountains. In fact, if he wasn't so desperate for a rare pokémon, Ash would've gone right back to the Safari Zone safe house and called it a day.

It was so hot that, within the first hour, Ash had gone through three huge canisters of water like they were air. For some reason the sun was harsher and brighter and hotter over here, but perhaps it was simply because of how closely the Safari Zone wanted their biomes to imitate the real world. Or maybe the warden was just a sick sadist who wanted to watch them struggle through the harsh environments while they searched high and low for the rare, exotic pokémon they'd seen and heard about.

Thankfully, the Safari Zone had provided protective gear for their treks, no matter what environment they planned to go in. Ash had donned a pair of protective goggles that looked like they wouldn't stand against even the slightest of breezes, but surprisingly held incredibly well against the sandy winds that blew past him as he walked along sand dunes. The scorching heat had been made bearable by the clothing he'd slipped into in the safe house. The fact that he looked like he was wearing a skin-tight suit was only a small price to pay.

Next to him, Hydrus was equally frustrated – while the heat didn't affect him much, the dry sand blowing up against him was driving him up the wall. It was getting in his nose, his eyes, and his mouth whenever he opened it. Ash felt sorry for his friend, but it wasn't like he could do much about it, except lend the pokémon his jacket, which unfortunately didn't help much.

As time passed, however, they noticed the sandstorms die down, until the wind was absolutely still, and they were the ones moving against the sand, not the opposite. It was as they moved deeper into the scorching desert that Ash began observing pokémon around them. Ash caught sight of several ground-types making their homes in the sand dunes. He'd passed by a Sandslash that had been skittish enough to run away when they'd neared it, and a pod of Hippopotas that was visible up ahead. The Hippopotas were cute enough, but the leader of the herd – a massive Hippowdon – deterred him from nearing them and catching one. Its red eyes didn't help, and neither did its gaping mouth it opened to yawn, exposing curved canines and rugged molars.

At one point Ash had tried catching a Numel – a small fire- and ground-type native to Hoenn – that had been moving lazily across the ocean of sand. Unfortunately for him, Ash's capture had been interrupted by the arrival of three Camerupt, the evolved form of Numel. He and Hydrus had managed to drive them away, but the Numel had managed to escape, much to Ash's annoyance.

"Tiring, huh?" Ash said, smiling. He dunked some water over Hydrus, who quacked in thanks. Then he chugged down the remaining water and exhaled as if he'd just experienced blissful euphoria.

Hydrus quacked in agreement. He hated the sand. Thankfully it had stopped blowing a long while ago, but the gritty stuff still matted his body. As long as he got to spend time outside, however, he didn't mind.

"Let's keep going. Maybe we'll strike gold and find a sleeping, rare pokémon strong enough to defeat the Elite Four."

Shockingly enough, they didn't. Aside from a Hippopotas that quickly burrowed into the sand and disappeared, Ash and Hydrus didn't see another pokémon for miles. He almost wanted to go back to the pod of Hippopotas, but he remembered the rows of massive teeth the Hippowdon carried—

The sand below him crumbled and Ash dropped into a pit.

The weightlessness in him stopped as he landed hard on the pit of sand coning around him. He coughed and rolled around, caking himself in in grittiness, his fingertips sinking into the dune below him. He was disoriented from when he'd hit the floor; he wrung his head and blinked furiously as he tried to comprehend what was happening around him.

A quack of surprise blended with annoyance came from his right, and Ash turned to take a good look at his friend. Hydrus was slowly standing up from where he was – on the other side of what seemed to be a conical pit. "What just happened?" muttered Ash in bewilderment.

Hydrus didn't know, but he was angry and pissed from being tossed into dirt and sand, especially after he'd spent so long carefully plucking each grimy particle from his body. He brushed himself and looked around.

Ash emptied his fallen cap of sand and ran his hand through the mass of dark hair resting on his head. "Okay," he said slowly, beginning to climb out of the pit. "Let's—"

But as he tried to climb back out, the walls of the pit crumbled before he could blink, and he was immediately tumbling back down the bowl-shaped pit he had been trapped in. Sand flowed past his fingers as he tried to stop himself from sliding to the bottom of the massive pit, but all of a sudden the granules around him began to churn and spin like a whirlpool. Ash yelped and jumped; his feet had been trapped under sand that had risen up to his ankles. He looked down—

In the middle of the pit's bottom was a large orange _thing_ that suddenly began to rise from under the sand like a submarine. Its gaping maw creaked open, with a deep chasm for its mouth. Sharp, zigzagging rows of teeth made themselves known as sand began streaming down the creature's humongous head, and then followed slowly, but steadily, its smaller body, stubby limbs, and pitch-black eyes that gleamed at him like stars.

"What the hell!" Ash yelled, trying to climb out as he continued to be caught in the swirling pit of sand. The orange thing at the bottom snapped its zigzagged jaws shut before guzzling down some sand. He didn't know what the pokémon was called, but whatever it was he needed to get the hell away from it as fast as possible. He looked to his right – Hydrus was trapped similarly, with sand wrapping around his ankles and keeping the Golduck shackled to the sandy vortex.

The ground-type pokémon looked up at Ash. Ash stared right back. Then it opened its mouth and gave him another look at the sharp teeth before it suddenly began making its way up to him.

"Hydrus, attack it!" he screamed, clawing at his feet. He quickly realized that both he and Hydrus were trapped in a Sand Tomb that had been presumably created by their attacker. And so as soon as he right hand dug deep to pull his legs out, his wrist was shackled to the ground. It was as if he was playing a deadly game of Twister.

A screech escaped Hydrus' bill and a second later he spat a steady stream of boiling water directly at the advancing critter. The searing water hissed through the air and struck the crawling pokémon cleanly in its flank, knocking it onto its side. It cried out in pain and glared angrily back before spitting a compact ball of thick, hard mud that exploded against Hydrus' torso.

The Golduck was uprooted from the Sand Tomb and knocked to his back, where sand quickly began winding up his body and pulling him into the pit, but he quickly tore away from its grasp and climbed back to his feet. Being the intelligent pokémon he was, Hydrus began leaping across the sandy vortex, keeping his feet busy – if he stood for too long on a particular spot, the sand would get too thick around his legs and he would be unable to break free anymore.

Ash, however, had no such benefits, and had both his knees and his right hand stuck to the pit, which was slowly sucking him deeper and deeper, trying to secure him for feeding time. The orange monster had begun making its way up and eyed him juicily, but before it could climb any further it as distracted by another spray of water that struck it in the back of its head. Then Hydrus mustered a Water Pulse and sent it shooting with a burst of energy. The orange, insectoid creature's maw snapped wide open and it crunched down onto the sphere of water, negating most of the pulsing waves and only receiving an explosion of cold liquid.

The pokémon shook its head and blinked out the moistness from its eyes, and looked up right in time to be blasted in the face with a ray of psychic energy. Its massive head snapped back and it was knocked onto its back, but it wiggled and rolled onto its feet with enough time to jump away from a Water Gun.

The insect gurgled and then sank into the ground in a matter of seconds, disappearing from sight. Ash's heart began to beat wilder than ever as his eyes darted around the vortex of sand; it could pop up whenever and wherever and he was praying that it didn't surface right in front of him.

Ash looked up with wide eyes as an idea began to form in his mind. "Hydrus," he called, ignoring his dry screech, "Hydro Pump, and spin while doing it!" Hydrus looked at him like he was crazy and almost stopped hopping around. Misty and Starmie had been great teachers, but he still wasn't focused enough to maximise the pressure, and it led to the Golduck drenching almost everything in sight. This was exactly what Ash wanted.

"Just do it!" Ash shouted, rather brusquely. Hydrus frowned, but pushed his legs with all his strength to take a mighty leap into the air. Water began to gather in his gullet, and he discharged a colossal amount in every direction as he began to whirl mid-air, drenching everything possible. Ash curled up instinctively as the liquid spray rained down on the pit; cold water revitalised him and he gasped from the frosty air.

The dry grit quickly turned packable and mouldable within seconds of being soaked. With a laugh, Ash tugged his hand out of the damp sand; its nature had changed as soon as even a little water had been applied to it and was now struggling to bond him to the sandy whirlpool that now spun oh-so slowly.

Not a moment later the orange pokémon burst from under and looked around with a glare. Settling its eyes on Ash, it hissed angrily before pulling its body out from the wet sand and crawling up to where he was standing. With a scream of rage, it stood on its hind legs, and then slammed down on its front, sending a wave of writhing dirt and mud at Ash. But what with how damp the sand was, it only served to trip Ash up, and he was met with a face full of wet grit.

Coarse silt stuck to his face as he pushed himself up. With a gasp, Ash turned around, and watched as the pokémon reared up and then lunged forward—

Hydrus shrieked slashed his claws in the air, grabbing the insectoid pokémon in a psychic grip. It twisted and turned in both pain and resistance as it was lifted into the air, then hurled far away from where Ash lay gasping. With a thud it hit the ground and kicked up waves of dirt. A second later, it was sprayed with a harsh jet of water that left it sputtering and shaking with rage.

"Ice Beam – aim for its legs!" Ash ordered. True to his aim, Hydrus' Ice Beam met its mark, trapping the pokémon's legs in blocks of ice. It hissed and glared in agony as freezing shocks arced up its limbs, making them momentarily numb. A quick Mud Shot was sent as retaliation; it slammed hard into Hydrus' legs and bowled him to the ground. The insect roared shrilly and zigzagged its way towards Hydrus, who jumped to his feet and released a Psybeam that went overhead and hissed against the sand. With a jump that seemed unbelievable for such a creature, it snapped its jaw at Hydrus and caught the Golduck's arm in its Bug Bite.

Hydrus screwed his eyes shut in pain and resisted the urge to scream as agony rippled along the length of his arm. The ground-type's grip was unfathomably strong, and the zigzagging, sharp teeth didn't help. He raked his claws along the side of its face in an effort to knock it off, but it held on, dangling by its teeth. The cream-coloured beak snapped open and Hydrus hissed out a freezing jet of frosty energy that resulted in both his arm and the creature left frozen off.

The pokémon hit the ground on its back, with a film of frost and ice marking its body. Its black eyes glittered and the ice surrounding its face cracked to shards as its jaws worked. "Psychic!" Ash yelled, when he noticed the pokémon hesitate. "Keep it trapped!"

The gem on his forehead gleamed red and psychic energy attacked the orange pokémon from all sides, keeping it locked in place. As it struggled to break free from the psionic barrage, Ash tersely enlarged a Safari-ball and quickly took aim; then, clenching his teeth, he tossed it forward like a baseball, and it beaned the pokémon between its eyes and sucked it in clean. As it disappeared in the form of a red light, Ash quickly began to climb out of the wet pit of sand; if it wasn't caught, it would be better to simply leave the scene instead of continue to battle it out.

He'd had too much of the Safari Zone in one go anyway, he thought in amusement as he furiously clambered out of the soggy pit.

XxXxX

He'd been surprised and a fair bit scared when two rangers had accosted him as soon as he reached the nearest safe house. From there on it was a quiet ride back to Safari Zone's hub; Ash had kept his eyes lowered, but the air was thick with tension and he struggled to keep himself calm.

He scowled into his arms and leaned back into his chair. He looked at his wrist, chained to the armrest by a handcuff (the rangers had simply done that as a precaution, but it made him no less uneasy). The black room he'd been taken in was nearly empty, save for three pokémon rangers and the warden, who was examining the footage from Ash's bracelet extremely closely.

After thirty agonisingly long minutes, the warden and his assistant rose from their seats at the large computer and walked up to Ash, who straightened in his seat and gulped nervously. The warden loomed over Ash; he seemed far bigger from his seat, and his beady glare made Ash visibly squirm in the cold, hard chair. Finally, he glanced at the rangers and jerked his head. "Take the cuffs off, Corporal Gupte," he barked.

As the ranger quickly inserted the key, Ash gaped at the warden. "I'm free to go? Really?" He sounded far more surprised than he should have.

"As you were provoked in both situations, we found no fault with your actions," chirped the warden's assistant. "You can collect your pokémon at the front desk, as well as the Safari pokémon you caught. Thank you for visiting!"

"That's…great," Ash muttered, rubbing his wrist. "Uh, thanks."

"I don't think I need to tell you to take good care of the Trapinch," groused the warden. "Now get out of my sight."

 _So that's what it's called,_ thought Ash as he was escorted out by the ranger. He would have to read up on the pokémon before bringing it out in front of the rest of his team, who were undoubtedly waiting to be released from the confine and stretch their limbs.

The ranger at the reception was incredibly warm and nice, and congratulated him on his capture profusely after he'd informed her during their small talk. Then he accessed the storage box nearby and withdrew all his pokémon, clipped the pokéballs to his belt, and waited out at the entrance for Misty while he stared in adoration at the newest addition on his belt.

Misty arrived moments later, caked in mud and drenched in sweat, but grinning stupidly. Ash didn't miss that. "What're you smiling for?" he probed, curious.

She held up two pokéballs – one in each hand – and did a happy jig. "I got some great catches," she replied brightly. "What about you? How did things go on your end?"

He merely tapped the safari-ball on his belt. She beamed. "Awesome. Now let's get back to the Pokécenter, I need to clean up and grab a bite."

XxXxX

It was with great excitement that Ash joined Misty back in the Pokécenter's grounds, decked in a new pair of casual clothes that he'd bought at the local store. The watch on his wrist reminded him of his battle with Paul in just two hours – he would first flaunt his Safari pokémon to Misty before making a move to Fuchsia's Battle Club.

It was cold compared to the sweltering heat back in the preserve, and so Ash shivered as a cool breeze blew past him. Adjusting the belt around his waist, he glanced at Misty and urged her to release her pokémon. "Alright, show me what you caught!"

She grinned in anticipation and giddily tapped the release button on the two safari-balls in her hand, and beams of brilliant light flooded out of the capture devices. The first of the pair was a tall, otter-like pokémon, with orange fur, a cream underside, and a growth around its neck that seemed to be a floatation sac – at least, that's what Ash guessed it to be. Fins grew out of the back of its stubby arms, and its tail split by the middle into two.

The second one looked far less generic compared to the otter. It had a body of smooth, bright green skin, although its arms were a paler blue-green. A thin, slimy film seemed to cover its body. Its webbed hands and feet were home to sharp, red claws. But what grabbed Ash's attention was the large lily pad on its head with a notch, and a red, bill-like mouth.

"What are they called?" Ash asked, eyeing the green pokémon curiously. It looked lazy – like it was drugged, really.

"This one is Buizel," she said, pointing at the orange otter, "and this one is called Lombre. Say hi!"

The Lombre was the only one to make a sound acknowledging Misty's words; the Buizel shuffled its feet and looked down. It seemed nervous.

"Don't worry, they're just shy," Misty dismissed. "Buizel's a pure water-type pokémon; he's native to Sinnoh. Lombre, on the other hand, is a water-type and a grass-type native to Hoenn."

Ash blinked. "That's cool," he commented. Being both water- and grass-type would be very advantageous to Misty's team. Not only would it be resistant to ice- and electric-type attacks, but it would also be able to take out other water-type pokémon.

"Yup!" Misty exclaimed, popping the 'p'. "Lombre is already pretty strong, from what I've already seen. All I need is a water stone to evolve him, though I'll give him some time to become friends with the team. Now it's your turn!"

Ash grinned. "Alright then!" he exclaimed, pumping his arm. His safari ball appeared in his hand and he tapped the button on the back.

The orange insectoid pokémon popped out a second later and landed squat in the middle of the field. It looked around oddly, shuffling on its feet, and gawked at Ash and Misty, cocking its head. It was nothing like the comical predator it had been back in the park.

Misty regarded it with confusion and disappointment. "What _is_ that?" Her expression didn't change when the pokémon darted for a rock and chomped on it with its zigzagging teeth. Shockingly, it crumbled to fragments fell apart in its mouth.

Ash scratched the back of his head. "Eh…I don't really remember. I think it's called a Trap-something. I guess?" he said, sounding very unsure. He took out his pokédex and scanned it with the lens. All of its data popped not a second later.

 _Trapinch, the ant pit pokémon. Its jaws are strong enough to crush rocks but so heavy that it struggles to get up if it flips over. It makes a conical pit in desert sand and lies in wait at the bottom for prey to come tumbling down._

 _This Trapinch is male and knows the moves: Sand Attack, Bite, Bide, Bug Bite, Mud-Slap, Dig, Bulldoze, Sand Tomb, Rock Slide, Crunch, Earth Power and Mud Shot. Its ability is Hyper Cutter, which prevents its attack from being lowered._

"Trapinch," Ash repeated. "It's a ground-type, native to Hoenn. Pretty cool, huh?"

"I dunno," Misty replied sceptically. "Do you know what it evolves into?"

Ash shook his head, but that was what pokédexes were for. A few quick searches, filled with typos, brought him to the Trapinch evolutionary line. Skipping over the first GIF, he went over to the second stage. It was a weird-looking, pale-scaled insect, with four emerald wings in the shape of rhombuses, bulging eyes, and twiggy limbs. Honestly, it had no similarities with its pre-evolved stage whatsoever.

The third evolutionary form was far more promising, far cooler looking, and looked much stronger than the frail second-stage pokémon. It was a majestic beast, with forest scales, a humongous tail, tough limbs, the whole set. It had a dragonesque look added to its insectoid features.

"What the heck?" Ash mumbled. "Trapinch looks nothing like…Vibrava," he read off. "They have nothing in common. Look!"

"I can see for myself," Misty snapped, "but you're right. They _do_ have nothing in common. It's like Octillery all over again."

He looked at the Trapinch. It – _he_ – was snapping his massive jaws at Buizel's tail, which kept being pulled away whenever the little ground-type's teeth neared. It kept Trapinch busy from vandalising the Pokécenter's grounds, anyway.

"Trapinch. _Trapinch_!" Ash called. He blinked and looked at the trainer, cocking his head, before scurrying towards the boy on his stubby limbs. Ash leapt back just in time and narrowly escaped the ground-type's teeth.

"No," Ash warned sternly. "No biting."

If he could pout, the Trapinch probably would.

Ash sighed. "Okay, first things first. If you don't already know, I captured you back at the Safari Zone. You know, where you attacked me?" he added, somewhat bitterly. "Anyway, I'm Ash Ketchum. I'm your trainer now. My dream is to become a Pokémon Master, and I'd love it if you join me. What do you say?"

He tilted his egg-shaped head once again, black eyes twinkling, and nodded somewhat jerkily. Ash smiled. "Great. Do you want to meet the rest of the team now?"

Another nod was directed his way. Ash complied, and soon enough all eight of his pokémon. They were scattered all around Ash, but converged to where he was, and quickly surrounded both him and the Trapinch.

Trapinch eyed them with a mixture of nervousness and curiosity. "Trapinch, these are my friends," said Ash, gesturing to his squad of pokémon. "Let's introduce you to them. This is Saur,"

The Ivysaur grunted, raising his head up proudly and puffing out his chest as he asserted the fact that he was the leader of the crew. Trapinch waddled over to the grass-type and nudged him in the side, as Saur looked down his shoulder at the pokémon all the while. Then, all of a sudden, Trapinch moved at Saur with a humongous bite aimed at the leafy fronds surrounding the pink bud. Fortunately Saur was quick enough to release his vines to stop anything bad from happening.

"No!" Ash yelled, while the rest of the team made angry and surprised noises. "Saur: let him down. Now!" he barked when the Ivysaur didn't. Saur agreed, but did so reluctantly and roughly. Trapinch landed on his back and struggled to tip himself onto his feet.

Ash helped him balance himself and frowned disapprovingly at his newest friend. "You can't do that," he chided. "Saur's a teammate. You can't just eat his leaves!"

Trapinch looked down sheepishly. To be honest, Ash couldn't bring himself to be angry at the little pokémon, not when he looked so cute and innocent and endearing.

"Anyway," he continued, "as I was saying…that's Saur. I expect you to become good friends. He's the leader of the group, so he's second in command when I'm not around."

At that, Saur looked arrogantly at Hydrus and Monferno, who scowled and basically acted as if the grass-type didn't exist.

"Next up is Delphi." The Xatu simply stared at Trapinch, staying still except for her moving head as he examined her from all sides. He opened his mouth to take a bite, but Ash gave the ornery creature a cautionary look that made him growl cutely and walk away sulkily. Delphi looked more amused than anything.

Ash cleared his throat. "Then we have Zeus," he said, gesturing at the Flaaffy, who bleated proudly and gathered electricity around his mane. It was beginning to thin and wane, so it did not have the desired effect, but it caught Trapinch's attention nevertheless, and also made him hesitate to nip at the electric-type.

"Here we have Monferno." This was where Trapinch was most excited, especially when Monferno purposely flaunted his flaming tail. Several minutes were spent with the ground-type actively chasing Monferno until Ash called for them to stop as he grew tired of their antics.

It was clear that Trapinch was a child at mind, and so Ash figured he shouldn't mind much – he found it adorable, really, but he had to get to the Battle Club within an hour and get in some training during the time he had.

"This is Screecher," introduced Ash, who pointed at the Misdreavus levitating by his sight. The miscreant trilled loudly and circled Trapinch as she floated to the ground. He seemed transfixed and perturbed by the way she stared at him, so Ash called her off before she unnerve him any further and moved onto the next pokémon.

He pointed at Kratos, who crossed his blades and fluttered his thin wings. "Up next is Kratos. Like you, he's new to the team." Black eyes stared apprehensively at the Scyther hovering at Ash's right. A nervous titter escaped Trapinch, and Ash snorted. Kratos was practically harmless, despite his fearful gait and curved scythes.

He went over Hydrus, who snapped his bill harshly at the Trapinch, who jumped at the noise, but he growled back threateningly, his fangs bared and eyes narrowed. He almost looked comical, what with his disproportionate appearance, but Ash knew that the jaws were to be feared, despite the disarming looks.

"And finally," Ash continued, "we have Snorlax. He looks angry now, but he's pretty chill once you get to know him." At that, Snorlax glowered at Ash, who chuckled benignly, but kept his hand over the normal-type's pokémon. While their relationship was defrosting over time, he did not want to take any chances – he was still cold and brusque with Ash, and was only truly friendly with Ash's pokémon.

"So, there it is. This is going to be your family. I want you to get along with them. You guys are going to be spending eternity together, so I suggest you get past any grievances you have with anyone. And I'm talking to you guys, too," he added, looking at him team, but particularly targeting his words at Kratos and Hydrus. His team rolled their eyes and deadpanned at him, but he was serious.

He peered down at Trapinch, who stared back blankly. "Do you want a nickname?"

A growl of confusion escaped Trapinch's mouth. "It's something to call you by," Ash explained. "Like how my Xatu's name is Delphi, so on and so forth."

Trapinch chittered excitedly, and Ash grinned. "Great! How about…"

As Trapinch rolled around on the ground, rejecting each and every suggestion sent his way, Ash huffed in frustration. "At this rate, you're going to go with something like 'Rock'," he muttered.

Trapinch chittered, and spat out a dandelion distastefully. Sighing, Ash tried, "How's ' _Atlas_ '?"

With a sudden leap, Trapinch bounced into the air, eliciting a gleeful bark. Sitting up, Ash laughed and clapped his hands. "Okay then, Atlas it is. Welcome to the team!" Unfortunately, in his excitement, the newly-styled Atlas scurried forward and tried to nip Ash, but was locked in place by Hydrus' Disable.

While the rest of his pokémon spread out around the place and began practising their moves, Ash tended to Atlas, who was struggling to get back onto his feet. Ash carefully held him by his head and helped him roll to his stubby limbs, and received an affectionate nuzzle in return. "Now, Atlas, we're going to check out your moves. You see those rocks over there?" He pointed, and the Trapinch followed his finger, eyeing the pack of rocks surrounding a tree. "I need you to focus all your attacks at it. Understand?"

The insectoid's beady eyes glared at the cluster of rocks near where Delphi was flying, and his legs bent as he took a battle stance. "Bite!" yelled Ash.

Atlas hissed sharply and charged his target, opening his jaws wide once he was close enough. His teeth gleamed black as dark energy coalesced around it, and Ash watched in satisfaction as the pokémon crushed the boulder under his strong jaws. Grinding his teeth, Atlas spat out crumbled stone and glanced at Ash expectantly.

"That was great. Now, try Crunch," Ash called, cupping his mouth to carry his voice.

This time the rock was pulverised to rubble far quicker and easier than before, and Ash could even notice Atlas' jaws widen and lengthen to add further potency. Nevertheless, there were two less rocks present on the field. Ash smiled and gave a thumbs-up.

Ash had already seen Bug Bite in effect, so he glossed over it, and then ordered Atlas to perform Bulldoze –the Trapinch had used it back in the Safari Zone, but it hadn't been very effective due to the wet sand. A wave of earth crawled from Atlas' feet when he stomped the ground and slammed into a tree, uprooting it within seconds and bringing it to land.

The noise startled Ash's team, as well as Misty, who had silently taken a nap in front of a large shrub. She glowered at Ash, blinking the gunk out of her eyes. "Keep it down!" she hissed.

"Sorry," Ash said meekly. Misty rolled her eyes and went back to sleep. Ash sighed.

He focused back on Atlas, who was waiting patiently for his attention. "Alright – Earth Power," he commanded.

With a fierce little battle cry, the ground-type stomped his foot, releasing a pulse of golden light that snaked along the ground, and then exploded upwards with brute energy, demolishing the boulders into tiny fragments. Where the rocks had once been now lay a hole that throbbed with the aftershocks of the Earth Power.

After that Ash's assessment of Atlas went pretty well – the only moves left were Rock Slide, Mud Shot and Mud Slap, which seemed to be moves the Trapinch was proficient in. In any case, it allowed for Atlas to conjure more targets when he forced large, jagged rocks to rain down on them and sink to the land like bombs.

Ash checked his watch, and decided that it was time to make a move. He recalled his pokémon and walked up to Misty, who seemed fast asleep. He woke her up with a playful shove and backed away when she flailed back to consciousness. "What?" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand.

"I'm heading to the Battle Club. I didn't think you'd want to spend the night out here."

"Th-Thanks a bunch." She yawned, and stifled it lazily. "Can you walk me back to the Pokécenter?"

Ash nodded; he grabbed her by the hook of her arm and lifted her up with a groan, then walked alongside her through the sliding doors of the Pokécenter. She bid him a barely audible "goodnight" and stumbled to her room while Ash dropped his pokémon off at the desk for a quick check-up before rushing out of the building when he realized it was already half past eight.

Ash arrived at the facility far later than he'd expected to, and entered the training field to see a slightly irate Paul standing patiently on his end of the court. When he saw Ash inbound, he scowled and unfolded his arms. "You're late."

"I know, I'm sorry," Ash blurted between short breaths.

Paul harrumphed. "Whatever. Let's get started."

He had expected to have some small talk with Paul before beginning their battle, but he shrugged it off and jogged to the other side of the arena, standing in his trainer box. "What are the rules?" he called out, cupping his hands around his mouth like a megaphone.

Paul spun a pokéball on his finger. "We'll use three pokémon each. No time limit, no substitutions. Is that fine?" he yelled back.

Ash grinned. "Yeah, fine by me," he said.

Paul nodded curtly. "I'll start off, then. Poliwhirl, prepare for battle."

He tapped the release button on the great-ball, and out came a large, blue Poliwhirl. It looked larger than Misty's and was far buffer – it was as if it was transforming into a Poliwrath without the help of a water stone. Ash wouldn't be surprised if Paul was training it in preparation for becoming a Poliwrath, anyway.

Ash sent out Hydrus – he could send out Saur, or even Zeus, but that wouldn't be fair and he wanted it to be an interesting battle, not a quick and easy one. The duck growled loudly when he spotted Poliwhirl and flexed his claws. Poliwhirl looked unfazed, though it tensed up and curled its hands into firm, hard fists.

Paul made the first move without missing a beat. "Mud Shot. Keep it at bay. If it gets close, use Brick Break and then blast it with Psychic."

Paul must've spent a good amount of money prepping his pokémon with TMs, because Ash was sure that no Poliwhirl could learn Psychic or Brick Break naturally. In any case, Poliwhirl followed its trainer's orders faithfully, unleashing blasts of mud at Ash's side of the field. Ash did not have to say anything for Hydrus to start moving – he was quick on his feet and did everything to avoid the hard-packed spheres of thick mud spinning his way.

"Ice Beam, then crush them with Aqua Tail," Ash said calmly. In a sweeping motion Hydrus released a sub-zero ray of pale-blue energy that quickly engulfed the balls of mud in layers of thick, hard ice. A split-second later, a veil of spiralling water coiled around his thick tail, which was swung wildly at the frozen Mud Shots and demolished them with ease.

"Psychic!" Ash screamed. A wave of energy exploded outwards from Hydrus, who hissed harshly as the gem on his forehead glowed brightly. To counter the surge, Poliwhirl retaliated with a psychic blast of its own. The two collided halfway along the field and resulted in a deafening explosion that released a cloud of smoke that took over the field.

"Get in close," Ash whispered, snapping his fingers to grab Hydrus' attention. "Attack it with your claws and aim for the eyes. Then freeze its legs with Ice Beam and Disable it."

With a jerky nod the Golduck blitzed fearlessly into the cloud of smoke, which was slowly thinning and vanishing into thin air. Chewing his lip nervously, Ash waited to hear the sound of Paul's Poliwhirl crying out in pain. Then he heard the sound of something hissing in the air, followed by a loud _smack!_

Hydrus burst from the smoke and flew back to Ash's side of the field, where he hit the ground with a thud. With a groan, he began to rise up, and just then Poliwhirl erupted from the other side, grunting as it thrust a fist cocooned in orange energy. The Brick Break slammed into Hydrus' gut just as he rose from his place and the wind was knocked out of him; he doubled over in pain and was hit with another punch, this one aimed at the back, and it made him fall to his knees.

"Double Slap, Hypnosis!" Paul bellowed. Hydrus was smacked across the face a second later before he was forced to look into the spiral on Poliwhirl's belly, which began to quickly distort and spin and put Hydrus to sleep. The Golduck struggled to stay awake, but in time it proved to be too much and he was soon breathing the dirt on the arena floor.

Paul smiled for the first time. "Wake-Up Slap." The tadpole's gloved fist uncurled and then doubled before glowing white with raw energy, and it extended its arm as far away from its front as it could before smacking Hydrus across the face. The slap produced a ringing smack that echoed loudly and made Ash wince in pain; with how wide and fiercely Hydrus' eyes had snapped open, it had to hurt a bunch.

The Golduck screamed in agony from the slap and jumped back to his feet, shaking his head; he was furious. "Body Slam!" shouted Paul, just as Ash yelled, "Psybeam!"

Poliwhirl leapt into the air in an attempt to crush Hydrus' under its weight, but its plan was foiled when a beam of psychedelic energy ploughed into its body, whacking it far away. Dirt flew into the air as it hit the ground, but it used the momentum to cartwheel back to its feet.

"Ice Beam!" commanded both Ash and Paul simultaneously.

Rays of blue energy raced out of Hydrus' beak and Poliwhirl's mouth, meeting at the middle of the field. The duo of icy beams expanded to form a massive, thick sheet of ice blockading the view on both sides. "Melt it with Scald!" Ash yelled.

Boiling water bubbled in the back of Hydrus' throat before being expelled at an immense pressure. It bored a hole through the mass of ice, and so Hydrus quickly swept the stream of hot water in all directions, spraying heat on the frost and thawing it to a pool of cool water that immediately soaked the ground. On the other end of the field, Ash saw Poliwhirl take a huge leap—

A massive tremor shook the ground as Poliwhirl slammed its feet and fists onto the arena. The Earthquake was a major surprise to Ash, who gaped as the battlefield heaved and shook. As Ash was standing in his trainer box, he was saved from any vibrations; Hydrus, however, was not so lucky. He was knocked off his feet and into the air, and as a result he struck the floor with a thud, disoriented and hurt.

Taking advantage of this, Poliwhirl thrust his hands out and engulfed Hydrus in a layer of blue energy. Caught in the Psychic wave, he was lifted into the air, where he was bombed and attacked by psychic powers, before being subliminally pulled to where Poliwhirl was. As soon as he was close he was cuffed across the face with a chop that sent him reeling in pain and discomfort.

"Water Pulse!" Ash blurted hastily, but before Hydrus could even conjure the water he was flattened under Poliwhirl's Body Slam. Rolling off Hydrus, the tadpole allowed his opponent to rise from the ground before slugging him across the face with a Mega Punch. Hydrus' eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell to the ground in an unconscious heap.

Speechless, Ash numbly recalled his pokémon. Hydrus rarely lost battles, and this was his first defeat in a long time. That had got to hurt both him and his ego. To be honest, Ash was sort of glad, however – the Golduck's arrogance had increased drastically as of late, and it seemed to get on Ash's nerves every now and then. Being made to eat some humble pie would be good for him.

"Good one," Ash said. Paul acknowledged him with a nod as he recalled Poliwhirl, who had relaxed after Hydrus loss. The purple-haired trainer seemed unaffected by his first victory as he exchanged Poliwhirl's great-ball for a pokéball.

"Electabuzz, stand by for battle."

The Electabuzz that popped out was smaller than expected – it seemed newly evolved, but its arms were thick and it had the same permanent scowl other Electabuzz had. Its golden fur sparked with electricity as it bumped its fists together. It seemed ever-ready to fight.

Ash mulled over for a while before going with Screecher. She appeared with a trill and a laugh that immediately put a smile on his face, and he laughed when she nuzzled up to him. It took a while for him to coax her into the mood to fight, and Paul seemed exasperated by the time she did.

"Okay, we're ready," Ash said sheepishly. "Take the first move!"

"Light Screen. Follow it up with Thunderbolt."

Thrusting its arms ahead, Electabuzz channelled energy through its fists and threw up a large, translucent shield around it. It glowed into existence and flashed brightly before disappearing in a moment. The only trace of its existence was the light refracting around it.

The next second, a bolt of electricity surged out from the electric-type as its thick arms whirred and spun, blazing to where Screecher was levitating, but she floated to the side and let the lightning slam into the barriers boxing them in. "Curse!"

An aura of pale red surrounded her and she squirmed in agony, making Ash grimace; Paul, realising that there would be no escaping it, yelled, "Electro Ball!" in an attempt to take it out faster. With a shrill roar, the Electabuzz produced a brilliant ball of golden lightning and released it with a burst of power that exploded against the Misdreavus just as the electric-type was engulfed in a crimson glow of its own.

Electabuzz twisted and winced as it was brought to its knees, but it rose back up, albeit wheezing and grimacing. "It doesn't hurt that bad," Paul snapped. "Use Double Team and close in. Follow it up with Fire Punch, dual."

Hissing in pain, Electabuzz rose back up and managed to produce illusory copies of it that dotted Paul's side of the arena in an instant. As they began charging towards Screecher, Ash snapped his fingers. "Psywave!"

A weaker version of the traditional psychic blast expanded from Screecher and crawled at the swarm of Electabuzz in the air. The golden felines jumped over, ducked under, or even ran straight through the Psywave; that ones that didn't try to evade it were cut clean in half and dispelled without a second thought.

The remaining seven Electabuzz blitzed at Screecher with the fury of an army. As they pounced at her, she began to create a massive sphere filled with dark energy, and then released a black, spiralling beam from the core of the ball. Purple circles spun towards the clones like curved blades and exploded when they made contact.

Three Electabuzz avoided the Dark Pulses and continued onwards. Two converged on Screecher from the sides; she spun around and released a Power Gem from the orbs around her neck to dispel one, and destroyed another clone just before she was struck from the back with a Fire Punch from the real Electabuzz. "Payback!" Ash snapped hastily.

The Misdreavus grunted and tensed as the scorching flames burned her, but whipped and allowed an ominous red energy to coil around her before striking her foe with a tendril of black light. The whip of energy clobbered Electabuzz on its neck and felled it to its knees. "Power Gem, then Shadow Ball!" ordered Ash.

Howling melodiously, Screecher beaned Paul's pokémon with a ray of red, concentrated light, which shoved the golden creature further into the ground. Snarling, it rose from the ground and thrust a fiery fist out to block the incoming Shadow Ball that had been sent flying not a second later, but when the Fire Punch slammed into the shadowy blob it resulted in a howl of pain from Electabuzz's end.

It struggled to rise back up, wringing its hands to shake off the pain. Then it writhed as another pulse of the Curse raced through its body and fell to its knees, grimacing and scowling, while Screecher focused dark energy in her mouth, a stream black energy rings racing from it, strafing Electabuzz in its chest.

"Thunderbolt!" thundered Paul. Blue lightning erupted from his pokémon's body, zigzagging to where Screecher was floating. She countered it with a Dark Pulse, spawning a detonation and kicking up dust and smoke.

Ash snapped his fingers for Screecher's attention. "Confuse Ray!"

"Counter it with Flash!"

Electabuzz's fur glowed with electricity; then, a split-second later, light erupted from it, filling the room with a blinding momentary brightness which blinded Screecher and made her fire the beam in a completely wrong direction. Ash began to furiously blink the spots out of his eyes, just as he heard a shriek of pain that sounded like Screecher. He looked up through squint eyes to her engulfed in electricity, screaming and twisting in the air.

When Electabuzz stopped the stream of lightning, Paul didn't skip a beat. "Electro Ball!"

Ash hissed. "Will-O-Wisp!"

As Electabuzz formed a golden ball in its hands, Screecher conjured a trio of red fireballs and fired them with careful control. The Electro Ball was tossed like a baseball, but the pokémon didn't have enough time to dodge the Wisps; it leapt away past one, but the other two exploded with fire when they struck the pokémon and left harsh scorch prints across its ribs.

Ignoring its hiss of pain, Ash looked away from the Electabuzz and grinned triumphantly at Screecher. "Use Hex!"

A wave of alien energy pulsed away from the ghost and slammed into her opponent, completely immersing the pokémon. Harsh screams, like that of a tortured prisoner, rippled from its throat as the burns across its body erupted once again with fire. Hex was a strange move that seemed to hurt harder when a pokémon was burnt, frozen, paralysed, or poisoned. This was the first time Ash was seeing it in effect, and honestly it seemed pretty painful.

Ash yelled out a command as Electabuzz huffed for breath, Paul shouting frantically from the other end of the battlefield. "Shadow Ball!"

The blob of shadowy energy sped to Electabuzz and beaned it right in its face. Its head snapped backwards, face, obstructed by a small burst of smoke and purple fog, but it was clear that it was out cold when it fell limp to the floor.

Paul recalled it without a word, but he did look slightly disgruntled. "The score's even," he stated. "Last fight – Torterra, prepare for battle!"

Paul's Grotle, it seemed, had evolved at last. And it was absolutely colossal. Standing at around seven feet tall, it resembled a bulky, green and brown tortoise, with a massive shell shielding its back. A single oak tree with a thick trunk and deep, gripping roots stood on its shell, along with a trio of stony extensions slapped with moss. A band of stone rimmed the shell, forming a diamond-like shape along the front. Its jagged mouth ended in a dark beak at the snout, giving it the look of a snapping turtle. Ash could already see its thick, brown legs, with dull, blunt claws leaving imprints on the firm ground.

It snapped its mouth and bellowed deafeningly, and Paul smirked smugly. Despite himself, Ash had to admit that he was a bit uneasy after seeing the beast standing at the other end of the field.

Ash recalled Screecher and switched her out with Snorlax. The normal-type frowned and yawned as he was set loose, and scowled when he saw Ash, who glared back. "We had a deal," he reminded sternly.

The scowl didn't disappear, but at least he turned away from Ash and focused his glower on the huge grass-type. Paul raised an eyebrow as he inspected Snorlax with rising interest. "You finally got him under control?" he drawled.

Ash laughed nervously. "It's…complicated. We understand each other. Don't we, Snorlax?" Snorlax harrumphed.

Paul shrugged. "Very well. Let's continue."

Ash clapped for attention. "Mega Punch!"

With a primal roar of rage, Snorlax curled his fists and bounded for Torterra, allowing blinding white energy to coil around his claws.

Paul frowned. "Razor Leaf."

Torterra screamed and jerked forward, unleashing a barrage of double-edged, fast-flying leaves at its opponent, but Snorlax charged them like they were simply pebbles against its skin. Paul was surprised by how unfazed he had been and Torterra looked equally stunned.

Paul tried another tactic. "Earthquake!" he instructed.

Recovering quickly from its initial astonishment, Torterra rose on its hind legs, and then slammed its front feet back down with terrific force. A shockwave rippled through the earth, this one more devastating than the one Poliwhirl had produced. A massive crack formed along the middle of the turf and the earthen plate slanted upwards, like the two parts of a split ship, shifting the earth and making Snorlax's footing unstable. He tripped to the floor, landing harshly, but bounced back up angrier than ever.

"Earth Power."

"Heavy Slam!"

Snorlax covered himself in a metallic glow and leapt into the air just as Torterra stomped the ground below it. A few meters away, the earth exploded with golden power, sending raw energy infused with clods and chunks of dirt flying into the air just as Snorlax hit his peak, crashing into the normal-type's underside and tipping him over; however, he did not lose focus at the task at hand, and twisted in the air so that he would travel in the same arc once again instead of having his destination deviated. Torterra could only gape and cry in horror as Snorlax landed harshly on top of it and flattened it under his far larger weight.

As Snorlax rolled over a groaning Torterra, Paul cried out another order. "Mega Drain, Leech Seed!"

A quartet of thick, forest vines snaked from Torterra's back and wrapped around Snorlax's wrists and feet, binding him tight, the vines constricting further and further as he struggled to break free. The tentacles glowed white and Snorlax raged as he was slowly being robbed of energy, which was being transferred to a silent Torterra. The next second a battery of brown seeds were spat out of the grass turtle's mouth, attaching themselves to Snorlax's flesh. As the parasitic tendrils snaked to wrap around the nearest blood vessel, the green vines slackened and Snorlax ripped himself free before berserk.

A fist slammed into the top of Torterra's skull, making it see stars, followed by an uppercut to the lower jaw that sent it screaming in pain. Its large maw snapped at Snorlax's leg, but he stepped back and Body Slammed Torterra into next week. He was filled with rage, overcome with fury, and nothing was going to stop him now.

"Sand Tomb!" cried Paul hastily, as his pokémon was thumped on its back with another Mega Punch. Groaning, Torterra tapped the land with its foot and waited. The ground began to dip, and all of a sudden Snorlax roared as he sank into the Sand Tomb, trapped in the vortex. He wriggled in an effort to escape, but his own heavy build made it nearly impossible. Snorlax just kept sliding into the pit.

"Sandstorm, then Earth Power, and Solarbeam," Paul called out calmly. With another stomp, Torterra kicked up a cloud of sand and infused it with a strong gust of wind that kept spinning dirt and stone and sand around the field. It didn't hurt, but it definitely proved to distract and irritate Snorlax as he struggled to pull himself out of the sand pit.

Then the very earth below him erupted and a cylinder of dirt and mud rose into the sky, barraging him from all sides and eliciting another roar. Then Torterra snapped his mouth wide open and began to collect particles of light, slowly but steadily, forming a ball of pale yellow energy that slowly kept getting bigger and bigger. Ash cursed.

"Dig yourself out!" he cried. Snarling, Snorlax began to claw at the sand around him, cupping massive handfuls of sand and chucking them outside the pit. As Torterra readied the Solarbeam, Snorlax managed to free a foot, and quickly began—

The ball of light lengthened into a cone of light and shot at Snorlax like a bullet just as he leapt out of the pit. It grazed against his back, prompting a hiss of pain, but he had at least avoided most of it. "Giga Impact!" Ash screamed through the sandstorm.

"Woodhammer!" snapped Paul.

Snorlax smashed his fists into the ground and focused to cocoon himself in spiralling streaks of purple before blasting off at blinding speed. Torterra roared and covered itself in a pale-green glow before curling up and lashing out as soon as Snorlax was within range; they collided with terrific force and released a massive shockwave that in turn triggered a blinding flare. The knockback sent both pokémon tumbling across the turf, wrapping themselves in dust and dirt.

Snarling, Snorlax pushed himself up, and roared as Torterra rolled back onto its feet. It shook its head and blinked to concentrate on the matter at hand. They were both bruised heavily, carrying welts and cuts across their bodies. "Solarbeam," Paul directed. "Quickly, before it recharges!"

Ash cursed. "Snorlax, get away!" he yelled, but unfortunately the Giga Impact had worn him out, and his pokémon struggled to breathe as it slowly began to recover from near-exhaustion, and the buffeting sandstorm did not help matters. Photon particles began to constellate in Torterra's mouth and its eyes shone with power as the massive orb of energy grew to its fullest.

The Solarbeam smote Snorlax in the face, his head snapping backwards as he fell to the ground in a graceful arc. He struggled to pick himself up, and managed to do so in the end, tired and heaving as he took in large breaths. "Mega Punch!"

Snorlax balled his fist and charged forward. Paul narrowed his eyes as the behemoth neared, and called out a command when he came close. "Withdraw and Protect!"

Torterra roared and it tucked back into its shell just as a gleaming orb of green swallowed it whole, shielding it from the outside; Snorlax's fist crashed into the barrier and emitted a burst of noise. He roared and wound his arm back as a ripple of pain shot up it from the impact, shaking his wrist furiously to put out the pain. "Stone Edge!" said Paul.

Its head still tucked inside, Torterra stomped the ground and triggered a blade of stone to punch out and slam into Snorlax's gut, knocking the wind out of him. As he doubled over in pain, Paul cried out, "Skull Bash!" and Torterra lunged at its opponent, its head finally shooting out, smashing its cranium under Snorlax's chin, the force of which made him fall on his back.

"Snorlax!" Ash cried. His pokémon rolled onto his front and began pushing himself up. "Use Crunch!"

"Immured Explosion!" Paul bellowed. Just as Snorlax bounced on his feet, pillars of stone spiralled out of the ground, entombing him within a matter of seconds, and Ash was taken aback. Before either of them could realise what was happening, the very ground below Snorlax caved in, sending the normal-type tumbling down underneath via a tunnel just narrow enough for the pokémon to smoothly slide in. The tomb collapsed, covering the hole, and all of a sudden the earth around Snorlax turned to a sandy vortex that he was trapped in within minutes.

Ash clenched his teeth. "Dig yourself out!" he ordered desperately.

But there was no way for Snorlax to escape, for the very next second there was an explosion underneath as Torterra stamped the floor and activated an Earthquake. The land shuddered and shook, crevasses formed, and plates shifted as the ground heaved upwards and sent a wave of dirt and mud and grime flying. Ash opened his mouth to call for Snorlax, but then a trio of Earth Powers followed the Earthquake, continued by a roar of anger and pain from underground that was undoubtedly from Snorlax, before everything went still.

For a second, smoke billowed and the fissures hissed before Ash realised that he had been beaten. With nothing but pure shock etched on his face, Ash numbly pointed the pokéball roughly where Snorlax had sunk and tapped the button. A jet of red light streamed from the device and disappeared into the ground to recall the defeated pokémon.

He only realised Paul was at his side when he heard the trainer's footfalls. "I won. Good game."

"Yeah," Ash mumbled.

Paul's blank expression didn't change. He didn't gloat, nor did he pity Ash. "I expected better from you, Ketchum. Train hard."

"I have been," spat Ash through gritted teeth.

"Well then, train _harder_ ," Paul drawled. "Torterra may be my strongest pokémon, but I didn't expect him to win against your Snorlax. You need to stop relying on its brute strength and start actually training it." He gave Ash a pointed look. "You don't train him personally, do you?"

Ash shook his head reluctantly. "Not really," he muttered, slightly embarrassed. "He doesn't really listen to me – I just let him do his thing during training sessions."

"You need to be firm with your pokémon, Ketchum. Keep them on their toes, or else they'll never respect you. They need to see you as their master."

For some reason, Paul's words and tone brushed Ash the wrong way, but he figured it must have just been the awkward way he had worded it. "Yeah." He glanced at his watch and peered at his…friend? Rival? He couldn't tell. "By the way, how's the Mega Evolution thing going?"

At that, Paul pinked. "It's, uh…It's going fine. My Lairon is nearing evolution. I'm sure that, once he turns into an Aggron, he'll be ready to Mega Evolve."

"How can you tell?"

"My mother is friends with Professor Charles Rowan, and I asked for his opinion," Paul lied smoothly.

Ash whistled appreciatively. "That's pretty cool. I think I need to get Professor Oak's advice on my Flaaffy, too, you know. He specialises in human-pokémon relations, so—"

"It's getting late, Ketchum," Paul interrupted, "and the Battle Club's about to close. How about we make a move?"

He blinked. "Yeah, okay."

The Battle Club, however, stayed open till midnight, but Ash realised that Paul wanted to get back for whatever reason and so he didn't press on. They checked out of the Club in minutes and allowed the next pair of trainers to use the battlefield.

It turned out that Paul had taken to spending his time in Fuchsia in an inn near the Safari Zone, instead of the Pokécenter – at least, that was what Paul had told him. "When we meet again, I expect you to be stronger," Paul said, though not unkindly.

Ash nodded and held up a thumb. "You betcha," he agreed. "Goodnight!" He waved as Paul walked off to _The Five Bells_ , and sighed as he left for the Pokécenter.

XxXxX

The Fuchsia Festival was nothing too great so far, but it was certainly a change of pace from the constant battling and training they went through every single day. The city square was wreathed in lights that drowned out the darkness that had come with the night. Stalls surrounded them wherever they went, providing them with fresh entertainment as they explored the fiesta. It seemed that the entire city had come out for the evening, but the city square was large enough for them to not feel congested.

Ash had donned a solid blue yukata his mother had sent him via the storage system last night after spending over an hour turning her house upside down in her search for it. It was a loose fit, but perhaps that was because Delia had purchased a yukata one size too big for him a few months back, although Ash didn't mind – nearly everybody had chosen to come in traditional clothing, and he did not want to be the black sheep in such a packed place.

Misty had dressed up in a stunning kimono that, for some reason, made Ash's heart hammer when he'd seen her. He would never say this out loud, but she looked great in it and her short hair made her appear even more attractive. He was certain that his words would mortify her and either make her run away or smack him in embarrassment.

"Oooh!" cooed Misty, hopping on her toes as she pointed ahead of her. A large crowd had gathered at a particular spot, hollering and cheering for some unknown reason. "Let's head there. They're handing out cool prizes if you win!"

"Uh, okay," Ash muttered, allowing Misty to drag him over. They pushed their way through the crowd until they squeezed out at the front. A shooting range beheld them, with rows of Psyduck cutouts for targets that moved from left to right at different speeds. The aim was to knock down as many as you could with a Paintball gun that held six rounds, with prizes being handed out depending on the final score.

A grown teenager in Western attire was currently manning the Paintball gun, and had managed to shoot four Psyduck, winning him an ultra-ball for his troubles. "Alright, who's next?" yelled the owner.

As fast as a viper Misty darted forward and held out a wad of bills that were promptly snatched out of her hands and replaced with the Paintball gun. The proprietor flipped a switch and the targets started moving again.

She lowered the gun and took aim, wasting several long seconds before pulling the trigger. A pellet of pain burst against the front-most target and knocked it down. Ash cheered.

Slowly but steadily she took air and fired, bringing down the Psyduck targets like they were no big deal. Soon enough, Misty had run out of rounds, but she'd managed not to waste a single paint pellet. She had managed to land herself the grand prize. The owner seemed stunned, but cheerful.

"How did you learn to do that?" Ash asked her once they'd walked out of the crowd of people.

Misty beamed. "Before starting out this year I used to go for this camp every summer," she explained as she hugged the large pokémon plush to her chest. "They taught us archery and how to fire a rifle. It was great!"

Ash shuddered. "I don't think it's a good idea to make you even more dangerous," Ash teased. "Ow!" He recoiled from the playful punch Misty tossed at his shoulder. She rolled her eyes and tried to hide her smile, but failed miserably.

The fair was a different than he'd anticipated – instead of Ferris Wheels and merry-go-rounds, there were a bunch of stalls and booths with games, food, clothes. To be honest, Ash was met with an ocean of colours whichever way he looked.

They were getting kind of hungry, anyway, so he went looking for something to eat. There were the typical rice balls, which Ash had found himself eating every single day in the wild, and so he decided to gorge on bacon bombs and deep-fried PB and J, which he'd never imagined he would be eating.

"That's disgusting," Misty said as she grimaced.

He thumped his chest and swallowed the rest of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "What?" he exclaimed, wiping a streak of blood-red jam off the corner of his mouth. To be honest, it tasted pretty good. He might just try it again when they would be heading back for the Pokécenter.

She mimed puking, but said nothing when Ash ordered another one.

By the time Ash was done with his third, they decided to wander off elsewhere, as the mere thought of another deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich made him nauseous. By this time Ash was sleepy with a full belly and was just about to suggest heading back to the Pokécenter, but the sound of cheers and loud music grabbed his attention and pulled him to the city square, where a ring of young kids and teenagers had gathered around fairly large, raised platform.

His drowsiness was immediately driven away the moment he laid his eyes upon the stage – a Machoke and Pinsir were in the midst of a battle, with two trainers shouting orders from opposite ends of the platform. Being pushed back, the Pinsir charged once again with its spiny horns aiming forward, but the Machoke caught it tight by the tip of the pincers and held the armoured bug in place. A fight for dominance ensued, as both pokémon struggled to push each other back to the edges of their sides, until the Machoke heaved its opponent up with a loud grunt and slammed it back onto the floor, which rumbled under the weight.

"Body Slam!" yelled one of the trainers wearing a pale white yukata, and his pokémon leapt into the air, visible only as a ball of purple muscle as it curled up, then spread its limbs out like an eagle just as it landed. The crowd went " _Oooooooh!_ " as they saw Machoke crash with its elbow, eliciting a squealing shriek of pain from Pinsir. The Machoke rolled away and leapt back to his feet without missing a beat and lifted its opponent in the air – and it began to turn around slowly and gloat at the crowd, with Pinsir groaning in semi-consciousness all the while.

The Machoke's trainer gloated, too, and grinned widely while his foe cried frantically for his pokémon to get back to its senses. "How do you want Machoke to end this?!" he hollered at the crowd.

"SEISMIC TOSS!" shouted someone, and the rest of the crowd exploded into approving roars.

With a deafening roar the Machoke grappled Pinsir to its chest, and then leapt into the air, twisting and spinning in a circle, before pitching it back to the stage, which rumbled and shuddered under the impact and weight, and shook a second time as the purple brawler landed on his feet. The crowd exploded into cheers and the defeated trainer recalled his unconscious pokémon with an expression of disappointment before vanishing in the mob.

The Machoke's trainer walked up to the platform and smirked over the rest. "Who's next?" he yelled out. "Make it quick!"

Nervous chatter replaced the loud cheers and everyone began to look at each other, as if urging one another to step forward.

Misty nudged Ash with her shoulder, and jerked her head to where the trainer and his Machoke were standing, revelling in their victory. "Go," she said.

Ash frowned. "Why me?" he protested. "Why don't you go for it? You're stronger than me?"

She rolled her eyes. "Look, it'll be fun. Just give it your best shot. Now, go!" She abruptly pushed him and Ash was propelled forward into the limelight. The crowd _oooooh'd_ ominously. Ash glared at Misty for drawing so much attention to him, but he could go back into the crowd – he didn't want to be seen as a coward and made fun off for backing out.

The trainer up on the stage blinked. "Alright, let's see how you do, kid." Ash raised an eyebrow. His opponent hardly looked older, and he had the nerve to call him a kid.

The DJ at the side stopped the music and snapped his fingers to grab their attention. "Release your pokémon, and the battle will start once I resume the track," he muttered in a monotone.

The two nodded and turned to face each other. "Good luck," said the trainer. "You'll need it."

Ash resisted the urge to roll his eyes – instead, he deadpanned at the boy, who scowled at the lack of reaction. They walked to their sides of the platform.

"Machoke, get ready!" said the trainer, and the purple wrestler lumbered forward, having being patched up with potions and healing substances. Although it looked somewhat tired, Ash had no doubt that it was in a good state and was ready for battle.

Ash tapped the release button on his pokéball. "Zeus, you're up!" His pokémon materialised on the ground with a flash of light, revealing his rubbery, pink form and his thinning white mane. The orb on his tail flickered to life, emitting a pale blue glow.

Music flared to life from the side, and, taking this as their cue, Ash and his foe begun the battle, ignoring the crowd's roars. "Focus Energy!"

Pale white light coalesced around Machoke as it closed its eyes in concentration. "Thunder Wave," muttered Ash. Tendrils of electricity streaked out from Zeus' horns as the Flaaffy fell to all fours. Current seeped into the reptilian, forcing its muscles to constrict and tighten to the point that it was painful, but Machoke ploughed through, until finally it had focused all of its strength into its limbs.

"Focus Blast," said Ash's opponent. A sphere of brick-red aura grew to life between Machoke's pressed palms before being launched with a rippling shockwave, but Zeus leapt gracefully into the air and arced around the ball of energy, grazing his underbelly, before slamming into the psychic dome protecting the audience.

"Zeus use Thunderbolt, and then Quick Tail!" Blue electricity slammed directly into Machoke's chest, and it staggered back and grunted in pain before a tail as hard as iron crashed jarringly into the back of its skull. It grabbed back to catch hold of Zeus, but he slipped away by an inch and darted back to Ash's side of the field.

"Nice," he remarked. The crowd, which had once been cheering primarily for the Machoke and its trainer, was now slowly beginning to root for Ash. "Now – Electro Ball!"

Blue sparks began to flicker around the orb on Zeus' tail until a ball of electricity slowly began to form. His opponent, however, was having none of that, and did not want to give Ash another chance to land a hit. "Dynamic Punch!" he roared. Red aura enveloped its arm as it wound its fist, and, as, it concentrated, Zeus made his move. The Electro Ball flew from his tail as he lashed it out, ionising the air around it – but a second later, as Machoke thrust its arm out, the red energy around its hand elongated into a larger projection of its closed fist and crushed the sphere of lightning like it was a cookie and slammed into Zeus' gut. The force of it knocked him off his feet and he rolled to a stop.

it must've really hurt, because Zeus took a while to get back up on his feet, but by this time Machoke was already on him, lifting him up in a chokehold. Now the crowd had switched sides once again, for they started yelling, "Ma-choke!" repeatedly, much to Ash's ire. He did his best to block out their chant and focused once again on the battlefield. "Power Gem," yelled Ash. "Get it to let go of you!"

The orb on his tail sparkled for an instant before a red energy beam was fired, beaning Machoke in the face. Its grip loosened for an instant as it snarled in pain and irritation, but before Zeus could slip away its hands tightened and wrapped around the Flaaffy's neck tauter than before. Using its free hand, it held it in front of its face to intercept the Power Gem, blocking most of the attack; while parts of it flowed around its open palm, they only caused mild annoyance when they fizzled against its purple scales.

"Mega Kick," drawled the boy, snapping his fingers. The Machoke grunted and tossed Zeus into the air and roundhouse-kicked the electric-type with its glowing foot. The attack took Zeus in the gut and forced him into the air, crashing into the psychic dome enclosing the two pokémon.

He slumped to the floor with a thud, and Zeus choked and sputtered for air. Ash hissed as Machoke began to race at his pokémon. "Agility!"

It was at the last possible second that Zeus picked himself up, slipped into Agility and darted away, Machoke's fist hitting nothing but hard concrete. "Wild Charge!" Enveloping himself in electricity, Zeus aimed for Machoke from behind and crashed into its back, the force of it making the fighter arch backwards in pain. "Trip it up with Iron Tail, and then weigh it down with Cotton Stun!" His metallic tail was swept at Machoke's ankles, knocking him to the floor, where he landed face-first painfully before balls of wool and cotton showered down upon him. It hissed and grunted as more paralysing electricity was pumped into its muscles, rendering it temporarily helpless. The Iron Tail to the back of the head did not help matters.

Machoke, despite its wide snarl, hardly looked intimidating with so much cotton covering it – it looked like a buff fluffy monster trying its best to threaten someone. It clawed at the wool and began to rip off chunks of it, exposing its purple skin to the air. A bolt of electricity interrupted its actions, striking its left shoulder and forcing it backwards. Then its muscles suddenly constricted and rendered it monetarily frozen, allowing another electric attack to blow it off its feet. Harsh sounds reverberated through the air as it crash-landed on the raised platform, which shook under its weight.

"Stone Edge!" yelled Ash's opponent, and, with a snarl, the Machoke punched the floor, triggering a line of pointed stones to jut out of the ground. Ash called for an Iron Tail and the rock blades were quickly pulverised to grit and pebbles.

And then all of a sudden a second stalagmite rose to the surface from behind and struck Zeus in the back, ploughing him into the air. But Ash noticed that his pokémon was going to land right on top of Machoke, who had grit its teeth in pain and frustration and it was paralysed once again. "Iron Tail – aim for the head!"

Bleating in agreement, Zeus tucked in his arms and legs to bullet down to ground faster. Machoke stood up on one knee, growling in anger, and looked up – only to see Zeus plummeting down at him, like a missile. The Flaaffy spun and tightened his now-iron-hard tail and hacked it at Machoke's temples. It crumpled and fell like a sack of rocks. Ash noticed its eyes slowly rolling in the back of its head as its breathing quickly became laboured. The concussion must've been severe enough to knock it out.

"Yes!" Ash cried out, but his voice was drowned out by the crowd's cheer and some distraught groans. He saw Misty throw him a thumbs-up. He grinned back.

He walked over to the other trainer. He was looking at his pokéball in his hand, with a numb expression on his face. He wasn't crying, but he did look disappointed. Ash guessed he'd expected to win.

"I…lost," he mumbled.

He sighed; then he looked up from his pokéballs. He shoved his hand in his pouch and dug out eight hundred in bills and handed them to Ash, who took them and quietly pocketed them before extending his hand. "Good match."

The other boy looked at it for a few seconds before exhaling, as if in resignation, and lazily shaking Ash's hand. Then he slipped down the stage and pushed through the crowd, even with people asking him questions.

Ash turned and smiled as Zeus approached him with a tired, albeit wide smile. He leaned over and ran his fingers through the soft wool on the Flaaffy's head that was crackling with electricity. "Nice one, Zeus."

Zeus smiled. Then, without warning, electricity sparked from his woolly mane, forcing Ash to jerk his hand back. "Zeus!" he hissed, wringing his wrist. "What—"

A core of warm, white light overwhelmed Zeus, as if swallowing him whole and Ash's breath hitched in shock and wonder. He doubled in size, his silhouette shining through the bright light, and the mane of cotton thinned until there was nothing left. As the brightness dissipated in a flash, Ash got a good hard look at Zeus' new form – his longer neck, stubby arms that almost resembled flippers, one-toed feet and the bulbous, crimson orb on its forehead. His tail, which had become longer and sturdier, now had black stripes circling, just like the ones around the nape of its neck.

"No way," mumbled Ash. The shock still hadn't faded. He still couldn't believe that Zeus had finally evolved from a Flaaffy to an Ampharos.

The Ampharos crooned; it was a deeper, heavier sound compared to the relatively high-pitched voice he had as a Flaaffy.

The crowd roared excitedly, delighted to see such a sight, and Ash rolled his eyes as he noticed Zeus' smug look as he drank in the praise. While he had undergone a drastic change, he was still the boastful, ornery little pokémon he had always been.

XxXxX

 **Trainer** **: Ash Ketchum**

 **Pokémon in possession** **:**

 **Saur** – Ivysaur

 **Delphi** – Xatu

 **Zeus** – Ampharos

 **Hydrus** – Golduck

 **Monferno**

 **Snorlax**

 **Screecher** – Misdreavus

 **Kratos** – Scyther

 **Trapinch** – Atlas

* * *

 **Hey, everyone. I'm sorry for all the tardiness, but I had a lot to deal with these past few weeks, stuff that was incredibly taxing to say the least, and I barely had any time to work on this. I won't bore you with the details. For readers of my** ** _Harry Potter_** **stuff, I'll put out chapters for them later in October. So there's that.**

 **Responses to reviews from the previous chapter:**

 **oddfather:** dunno if the "ash is a kid, can't kill" deal makes sense if the culture allows. otherwise we wouldn't really have child soldiers as a concept in Africa. Not sure why but i'm getting the Ash is in dark souls vibe considering each and every one of his pokemon is basically rekt with ease regardless of the training. Still looking forward to the next chapter but you've certainly taken a unique route for ash.

 _–_ _Child soldiers exist because young boys and girls are lured by rebel groups often under the guise of providing opportunity – food, survival and shelter – enticing them with incentives hard to get in shitty societies. Plus, children are easier to manipulate. Ash has a stable life and black-white morals, and can't see killing as an option. It simply isn't ingrained in him. But thank you for your support, and for sharing different viewpoints that are always a pleasure to read :D_

 **rockingchampif:** At last some frustration from ash it really was needed for him to grow getting angry or fearing won't we beneficial now that pent up frustration is out he can be more productive ...I hope he trains in a different way so that he can get stronger and better ..  
Good to see him getting all his Pokemon safe and sound ,I hope you divide the league in junior and senior participants according to their experience...  
World building would be an awesome tidbit in between and keeps us engrossed , hope no team rocket in fuschia city, can't he get an expert training guide from different master type so that he can learn quicker, as its his ability to find trouble ...Monferno is like the anime would be lovely to see how he gets past that blaze I love infernape as a pokemon, a dragon is needed for his team to hope to see him getting one in Safari zone if he is travelling there...  
Can't wait for the next one...

 _–_ _Thank you! And Ash has caught a dragon-type in this chapter – I don't think many of you would've guessed it!_

 **Sam Halligan:** The character development Ash is showing is some of the best I've ever seen. Too many stories have justified a 10 or 11-year-old child acting like an adult by saying that he's just mature and/or that the thing he faced made him grow up, which just isn't feasible. You've got such an interesting mix of adult and childlike moments which make Ash seem far more 3-Dimensional as a character with levels to his personality. It shows that he's still a child but is beginning to grow up and learn, and hasn't just magically understood how the world works after one bad encounter with Team Rocket.  
Personally, I've never seen much of a use for Misty, in most stories, she does almost nothing but adds extra dialogue so to see her acting as such a strong character, guiding Ash where necessary and putting him in his place is so refreshing.  
This is a really great chapter, thank you for all the hard work you put into it.

 _–_ _No, thank YOU! I'm really glad you liked the stuff I put out!_

 **GuardianOfTheUniverse:** Great chapter. You are definitely on the level that Challenger and Traveler were on at this point. I am not sure how this story slipped my radar but it is awesome. Keep up the good updates. What do you think of Ash getting a Metagross always one of my fav Pokemon.

 _–_ _Metagross is probably my favourite steel-type pokémon! I'd love Ash to get one, but we'll have to see. Maybe in Hoenn or Sinnoh ;)_

 **Guest:** First of all, I love the character development you put Ash through, and having him realize that he isn't invincible, like every human being.

And I'm not gonna lie, you broke my heart when Luna left, but at the same time, I'm happy for her. I just hope she'll be reunited with the team again and rejoin. I also feel that part of Hydrus' animosity towards Kratos is also him taking out his anger and resentment towards Luna for leaving on him. If Luna comes back, I think there will be a confrontation between them. Where Hydrus says something he doesn't mean and she slaps him in return before they reconcile.

And when Ash challenges Sabrina, I think he should find out about his missing memories of his session with her and have her return the memories. Because as she said, the news of his incoming death can break him or make him and even though it seems inevitable, everything can be changed. I wanna see how it makes him.

Hope you update soon and keep up the great work!

 _–_ _Oh yes, there will definitely be a drama-filled chapter when Luna returns, sooner or later. As for Ash's battle with Sabrina, I haven't exactly lined out everything, so we'll have to wait. But I'll definitely keep this thought in mind._

 **As always, thank you all for reading, reviewing, following, etc., and, until next time, have a good one!**


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